Unborn Threat
by Red Bess Rackham
Summary: A Quidditch match, an electric blue storm, and a cloaked creature with a dark purpose... Even the strangest of happenings can be erased from time. This is the untold adventure. MWPP. Complete.
1. Chapter 1 Quidditch Talk and a Plan

Disclaimer: I don't own any of J.K. Rowling's stuff, and if there are any similarities between my story and others like it, or other movies/books, I didn't do the similarities on purpose, and I don't have a penny to my name if you wanna try and sue me anyway.

A/n: The first couple of chapters might be a little boring, but they are needed to "set-up" the rest of the story. So stick with it, and please review!

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**Unborn Threat**

**Chapter 1**

"You'll do great. You always do. So quit worrying." Sirius Black leaned back on his elbows on the freshly cut green grass.

James Potter ran a hand through his messy bedhead-like hair. "I guess......" he said, knowing deep down that it was probably true, but not willing to believe or admit it.

Remus Lupin looked up from his book. "You will, James. Now change the subject. All you 2 ever talk about is Quidditch."

Sirius grinned, revealing perfectly straight white. "Whatever you say, '_Professor'_ Moony, sir."

James laughed.

Remus smiled and continued reading. 'Probably.' he thought, but said nothing.

"He will Professor someday, too, I'll bet." James commented and crossed his legs.

"I'll take that bet." Sirius sat up and rubbed his chin, lightly covered in early stubble. "Whaddya say? A Galleon?"

"Done." James shook Sirius' hand and they both laughed.

Remus shook his head and good-naturedly mumbled, "That's right. Then I can keep guys like you 2 in line."

"Good luck with that." Peter Pettigrew sniggered.

The 4 friends were momentarily quiet as the hot September sun beamed down around them. Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all sat under the cool shade of the large leafy tree by the lake, on a particularly lovely Friday afternoon.

A very pretty red-head with startling green eyes passed nearby with a small group of friends. James nervously tried to flatten his hair.

Lily Evans....

She glanced his way, and James smiled crookedly. She half-smiled back and kept walking.

James had given up tormenting her when the feelings he had for her had become very strong. Now he was attempting to be kind to her, and so far she seemed to be okay with it. She'd even said it herself: she didn't "_hate_" him anymore.

All 4 friends noticed the brief non-verbal exchange, but no one said anything. Sirius winked and turned his attention back to the peaceful, glistening lake. Remus pretended not to notice and kept reading his book. Peter wasn't sure what the non-verbal exchange was all about, or why the others were saying nothing. He admired them to no end, however, and did as they did.

Shortly, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter rose from their comfortable place under the tree and headed into the Great Hall for supper, once again talking about their favourite subject: Quidditch.

"I'm pulling for Puddlemere United, myself." said James, and shoved his hands in his pockets. They passed a group of first year girls who gazed and sighed as Sirius and James passed.

"You are not." Sirius pointed at James' chest and the bright circle attached to his shirt. "You're wearing a Cannon's pin!"

James sighed. "Alright! So I lost a bet."

Sirius snorted. "So you have to cheer for Puddlemere or wear the pin? Which part was the win?!"

"Hey!" James lightly punched Sirius in the shoulder. "Puddlemere is doing well this year! And, actually, I have to wear the pin because I lost the bet."

Sirius shook his head still snickering, then turned to Remus. "You, Moony?"

Remus shrugged. "This year I think I'm going for the Woolongong Warriors."

"Australia?" James confirmed.

"Yes. And also, the Moose Jaw Meteorites." Remus said.

"What?! The _Canadian_ team!? Aw, c'mon Remus!" Sirius groaned.

"You're not serious, are you?!" James exclaimed.

"No, actually, he is." Remus jabbed his thumb in Sirius' direction. James rolled his eyes and Remus continued. "Why not the Canadian team? They've been playing very well this year."

"True, I s'pose they have." Sirius agreed.

"But weren't they the ones threatened with disbandment recently?" James asked.

"Ya." Remus nodded.

"How come?" Peter asked quietly.

"Well, because usually after they win, they fly over nearby towns with sparks flying off their broom tails. Supposedly it's a safety issue, so they only do it over the pitch now." Remus explained.

"Oh." Peter said.

"And you, Sirius?" James poked Sirius in the chest.

"I - unlike you 2 - remain loyal to the team I cheered for last year." Sirius held his nose in the air in a mock snobbery-type manner.

"And which team might that be, Sirius?" Remus raised an eyebrow as the 4 wove through a group of chattering 5th years. They all ignored the 2 that giggled an sighed and pointed at Sirius and James.

"Why, the Falmouth Falcons, of course!" Sirius said and headed towards the Gryffindor table.

James groaned again. "Liar! You cheered for the Magpies last year!"

"You only like the Falcons because of the Broadmoor boys." Remus plopped down on the bench next to Peter.

"Not true! They finished nearly 10 years ago, in '69." Sirius held up his fork.

"That was 9 years ago." Peter piped up.

"Precisely." Sirius waggled his fork around. "That's why I said _nearly_ 10 years!"

At that moment, Dumbledore stood and the Hall immediately quited.

Before we eat, I'd like to say good luck to all of our Quidditch player's in tomorrow's match!" Dumbledore beamed at the students. "Now, dig in!" he sat gracefully, and the food appeared on all of the golden plates before them. The hungry students quickly piled their plates and began eating.

Throughout supper as Remus and Sirius (with the occasional question or comment from Peter) continued to argue good-naturedly about Quidditch, James could not stop himself from glancing repeatedly over at Lily Evans.

She just did something to him. He didn't know what. She was so pretty, so vibrant and full of life....

James self-consciously ran his hand through his raven-coloured hair again. Why did he do that all the time? Was he really that vain, that he was always messing with his hair? Or was it merely a nervous habit? He didn't know, and it was frustrating.

Lily laughed heartily at someone's comment, and James immediately forgot about his stupid hair. Her smile was so radiant, her eyes such a sparkling, brilliant green.....

She glanced at him, and James embarrassedly averted his gaze. What he didn't see was the way Lily's cheeks went pink as she smiled and also looked away.

* * *

"This can only work once."

"Yes, I know, my Lord."

"If you fail....."

"Yes, I know."

"I hope you understand the grave importance of this, Vadamir."

"I do, my Lord."

"Indeed."

2 hooded men stood on a deserted beach, the cold sea winds biting at their skin. The full moon was temporarily masked by a large black cloud. The setting was cold and eerie.

"He must be killed. My very survival depends on it."

"Yes, my Lord."

"Tomorrow night." the lips of this speaker moved to make a tight thin line. His jaw clenched then relaxed. "If you do not survive, all is lost."

"I will, my Lord. Failure is not possible."

"I should think not." the voice was colder than ice, and sliced through the firgid sea air.

Vadamir was cold, but he did not shiver. He could not show weakness or he would be struck down.

His task was clear and simple: kill James Potter and anyone who gets in the way.

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A/n: So whaddya think? Please R&R! (just no swearing, please!)

More to come.........(stay tuned...)


	2. Chapter 2 The Quidditch Match

A/n: Sorry this took so long to get up. But here's chapter 2, and this chapter may not be as interesting, but I promise some excitng stuff to come....anyways. Enjoy!

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****Chapter 2**

Saturday dawned slightly chilly, but bright and crisp.

James had already been up for an hour, tensely waiting and preparing for the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin. James was the Seeker for Gryffindor, and he was playing against the hard-to-beat Slytherin Seeker, Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius only became Seeker last year, but he had obviously had an unexpected talent for it. He had good eyes, and was very fast. James hoped he was faster.

Sirius came down the stairs from the boys dormitories, yawning slightly, but looking good and awake.

"Ready mate?" he slapped James' shoulder.

James sighed. "No." The familiar nervousness was plaguing him once again.

Sirius laughed. "You'll beat the git. No worries."

After Remus and Peter had joined them, they headed down to breakfast, where Remus and Sirius had to give James the usual pre-Quidditch pep-talk, and force him to eat a piece of peanut-buttered toast.

Students and Professors headed down to the Quidditch pitch, occasionally slipping and sliding on the dewy grass.

When they'd reached the doors to the change rooms, Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder and started, "Kick his sorry - "

"Sirius...." Remus cut him off warningly, being someone who didn't really tolerate swearing between his friends.

"Sorry Remus." Sirius mumbled, recalling that very fact. And instead said, "Alright. Kick his _rear end_. Hard." he winked and gave James a pat.

Remus smiled. "What he said." he also patted James' back.

Peter pulled a little piece of slightly smooshed greenery from his pocket and thrust it at James. "It's a clover. For good luck."

James took it gingerly, and glanced at Sirius who glanced at Remus, who glanced back at James. "Uh, thanks...."

"I'll go save us some seats." Peter said and jogged away.

James chucked the bent clover over his shoulder, and smirked. Remus and Sirius chuckled.

"Anyways....." Sirius grinned and cocked his head slightly. "Front row, best seats in the house. Guaranteed." he gave James the thumbs up.

"Oy! Potter! Hurry up!" One of the other Gryffindor players called from the change room.

"We'll go and see you when we congratulate you on your win." Remus said. The 3 laughed, and then Sirius and Remus joined the mass of students filing into the stands.

James turned and headed for the Gryffindor change room. He took a series of deep calming breaths, trying to wash away the usual tense pre-match jitters.

Lily would be watching......

James shook his head and raked his fingers through his hair. '_Don't think about her._' he thought. '_It'll only make you more nervous._'

"S'about time, Potter!" one of his teammates said teasingly. "Grab your stuff! Hurry up!"

James hurriedly got changed into his Quidditch robes before settling down on the benches in front of the Gryffindor Captain, Adam Steegle. H e tried to give his tense team some last minute pointers, strategies and tips, but James got the feeling that no one was listening too closely, including himself.

This was the first match of the season. This was the type of match that showed the teams what they were made of. Gryffindor desperately wanted to beat Slytherin, not only because it was the first match of the season, but also because it was _Slytherin._ They just _had to beat _them. Of course not just beat them: CRUSH them. Adam had been teaching them some new tactics, and this was to prove just how well they worked.

The doors to enter the pitch opened wide, and the Gryffindors marched out. They were met by a wave of cheers and applause. The Slytherins were already on the field, and sneered at the Gryffindors in disgust. Both teams mounted their brooms. James held tightly onto the handle of his Nimbus 1500 - the newest broom out there (the school had recently gotten a burst of funding form the Ministry, and a good portion of it went to buying the Seekers new brooms).

Madame Hooch, a newly appointed Professor with short brown hair and startling yellow-green eyes, stood on the field, ready to referee.

"Shake hands." she said firmly.

Adam and the Slytherin Captain gripped each other's hands tightly and squeezed, like they were attempting to break to other's hand. They grit their teeth as their hands turned odd shades of white and red from the pressure.

"Enough!" Madame Hooch braked and sternly motioned for them to let go and get on their brooms. "Now, play fair!" James thought was to be highly unlikely since it was Slytherin that was playing.

Madame Hooch threw the Quaffle up and loudly blew her whistle...... and play began.

James briefly caught sight of the Golden Snitch, but it fluttered and abruptly disappeared. He held tight to his broom and concentrated on spotting the Snitch before Lucius.

Lucius idly circled the pitch, keeping his open, but looking extremely bored as though this sort of thing was beneath him.

James couldn't even barely hear what the commentator was saying about the game, giving his or her verbal play-by-play of the game. The first reason being because he was deeply focussed on being the first to spot and catch the Snitch. The other reason, however, was because the crowd was making a heck of a lot of noise, that was a constant loud din, ringing in his ears.

Once, James was worried that Malfoy had managed of catch sight of the Snitch and went speeding after it. But he must've lost sight of it after a Bludger nearly unseated him. James made a mental note to thank the Beaters.

James had no concept of time as his eyes relentlessly searched every inch of the pitch and the stands for a tiny glint or glimpse of the elusive gold ball.

He glanced at the scoreboard, curious as to his team's progress. His eyes widened. 170 - 20, Gryffindor! _How_ was his team _doing_ it?!

The crowd roared amazingly loud, once again and it was positively deafening. 180 - 20!!!

James took a moment to watch, and was thoroughly shocked by the way his team was playing. The way they were.... they were playing with incomprehensible fire and spirit, the type no one had seen in years. They hardly let Slytherin _touch_ the Quaffle, let alone get near enough to score. The way the team was going about things, James found it hard to believe that Slytherin had managed to score at all.

Right then, if James caught the Snitch, then Gryffindor would beat Slytherin with an _embarrassingly_ high score! And if Malfoy managed to catch the Snitch, then Gryffindor would only squeak a win. One more goal for Slytherin, and a Snitch catch by Malfoy would tie up the score.

Slytherin scored.

James rolled his eyes. "Like that." he mumbled aloud, then returned his attention and energy to searching for the Snitch.

And then he saw it.

It glinted brightly, practically in the very center of the pitch. Malfoy circled the pitch and yawned, apparently not seeing it.

James took a breath and dove for it.

Immediately Malfoy perked up, seeing James' sudden movement. He dashed after James, and was right on his tail. They were both speeding head-long towards the Snitch. It dipped down so that it was barely a foot off the ground. James wanted to pull back, thinking there wasn't enough room for him to catch it and pull up before crashing into the ground.

Sweat beaded on his forehead. He clenched his teeth and willed his broom to go faster. He heard Sirius' words in his head, _'You'll beat the git. No worries....'_

A bludger flew past, way too close, nicking James' shoulder. He heard a swish of air and a quiet, 'ha' telling him Malfoy had missed it too.

James reached out...the ground was so close.....the Snitch was right there.....Malfoy gasped in anger and tried to reach father......James strained and leaned forward as far as he could....it was _right_ there........

HE'D CAUGHT IT!

There was a split second of excitement and happiness from James, and anger and frustration from Malfoy, but it was extremely brief before both panicked and pulled up on their brooms as fast and as hard as they could. They both scraped the ground, but were extremely close to the stands. At they speed they were going at, they were going to crash!

The crowd in the stands the 2 Seekers were heading for screamed and dove under their seats. James heaved on his broom, forcing it to make a 90 degree angle to the stands. His broom shot up, banging his knees hard on the wooden over-hang of the stands. Malfoy continued straight, braced himself, and him and his broom ripped through the canvas at the back of the stands and took off a few hats along the way.

The crowd cheered as the 2 Seekers slowed down and came in for a landing on the pitch. And between James' horribly throbbing, bruised and bleeding knees, his hands aching from clenching the broom so tight, and the Snitch still vibrating in his hands, the latter was all that mattered.

Of course it was also very pleasing to see the way Malfoy was pulling on his slick, chin-length blonde hair the way his normally pointed pale face was an odd red colour, and the way he was growling and moaning like he was about to explode. James laughed his cocky after-match laugh, hoping Malfoy _would_ explode.

He flashed the Snitch at Malfoy again, very happy to see the git feeling like a loser. The rest of the players landed, amidst the deafening roar of the Hogwarts crowd. James couldn't remember the last time the crowd had been that loud. The Gryffindors patted James on the back and paid him all kinds of compliments, but for all it was worth, James could not hear them. He was grinning ear to ear, his ears ringing with the noise of the crowd. The Slytherins were dark and sulky, quickly trying to get off the pitch.

His team lifted him up on their shoulders, and James ignored the pain in his knees, and the blood trickling down his legs from them. The entire school - minus the Slytherin students who were attempting to exit the stands - were on their feet, cheering, yelling, applauding, whistling, stomping, jumping and really just making noise. James saw a group of girls in one of the stands holding up a banner that read, "WE LOVE YOU JAMES". He spotted Sirius among the crowd, standing on his seat whistling, waving and yelling something. James just grinned even more and waved.

He felt so good. _This _is what he lived for. _This_. The crowd, the cheering, the compliments....all that. It was the most awesome feeling in the world for James.

The team finally headed to the change room as the teachers prodded the students to go back to the school. James kept the Snitch. He'd done it a time or two before, but before, it was to show off. This time, however, he just wanted to keep it. Keep it, so whenever he looked at it, he could remember this. Remember the crowd, and the way they were clapping and cheering. Remember his team, and the way they had played on the field and the final score against Slytherin (330 - 30). Remember this awesome happiness and high he felt, that would impossible to duplicate. Remember the way Malfoy had gone ballistic when he'd reached the ground, and the way his team's place faces had turned red as they stormed off the field.

But most of all, he could remember the way the most beautiful Lily Evans was for the first time, beaming at him as she disappeared into the crowd of students.

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A/n: What do you think!? Let me know!!! (just no swearing please). And try and check out some of my other stories!


	3. Chapter 3 The Storm

A/n: I know, I know. I took so so so long for me to update, and for that I apologize profusely. I am working hard, now that I'm on holidays (how does that work?) to update my fics as much as possible. So do not abandon me! I'm hurrying, I promise! And besides, I think this is a particularly long chapter, so please enjoy.Anyways, here comes another chapter, and to this, I MUST say, the plot thickens.....

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****Chapter 3**

As expected, the Gryffindors partied well into the night. Someone had enchanted a large red and gold banner that read, "GO GO GRYFFINDOR" to continually spit out red and gold sparkles all night. People were trying to fish glitter from their punch the entire night.

The Snitch had been left to fly around the Common Room, with the occasional person trying to snatch it up.

"You were brilliant!" Sirius said, for the least the 50th time in five minutes.

Remus laughed. "He _knows_! You've said it at least a hundred times!"

Sirius shrugged and ruffled James' hair, knocking gathered sparkles here and there. "Well, he was!"

"It was the clover! I told you it was for good luck!" Peter squeaked.

"Ya... that's it." James said, trying to humour him. "The clover...."

Sirius, Remus and James held back their laughter.

"I'll be back. I need some more punch." Peter said suddenly, and fairly skipped off to the punch bowl.

The other 3 burst out laughing. All the giddiness of the victory, combined with the way James had answered Peter was just too much.

Finally, at about two o'clock in the morning, the party had fizzled out enough that James figuered he could also go to bed.

"G'night mate." James yawned and patted Sirius' shoulder.

"Night." said Sirius, the last of the four, it seemed, who would go to bed. Peter had left first, mumbling something about going to get a surprise for James before the morning came. Then Remus went next, his eyes drooping and commenting on how he hoped he did well on that test he was going to have on Monday. Now James was heading to bed, yawning the whole way. There was a handful of people left in the Common Room, all seeming to be rather wide awake considering the hour, and all very much willing to pull an all-nighter.

"I'll be here when you wake up!" Sirius grinned.

"You're goin' for it then?" James asked, not believing his friend would actually go all night with out sleeping.

"You bet!"

James shook his head, rolled his eyes and headed up the stairs. "Have fun!" he called over his shoulder.

"Oh, I will!" came the reply.

When James reached the dormitory, he was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. His feet and eyelids were heavy and he dragged himself into bed, not even bothering to change into his pajamas.

He briefly wondered where Peter was, because his bed hangings were open and there was nobody under the covers. But the thought was gone from his mind as fast as it had come.

He closed his eyes, sighed with content, and fell fast asleep.

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Professor McGonagall was patrolling the Entrance Hall, among other areas of the school, looking for students out of bed. She kept a particular eye out for Potter and Black - they were especially known for being out of bed late into the night. They were harder to spot if they were under Potter's invisibility cloak, but Minerva had caught them twice before while they were under it, and she was sure she could do it again if need be. 

She heard quiet footsteps down the hall to her right, and quickly hurried over to find out who the culprit was.

"Minerva?" Professor Dumbledore turned the corner, thus revealing he was the person who had made the footsteps.

Minerva McGonagall let out her breath. "Yes, Albus?"

"I wonder, have you seen the weather rather recently?" He asked. "As in, tonight?"

Confused by why he was asking, Minerva slowly shook her head. "No.... should I have?"

"Curious. Very curious..." he said and beckoned for her to follow him. Dumbledore opened the great oak doors in the Entrance Hall and the two Professors stepped out into the night air.

Minerva was shocked by how cold it was. And windy! She threw a hand over her head just in time to catch her hat as the wind took a mighty swipe at it.

Dumbledore's beard was being swished all around him, as were his robes, yet he made no effort to stop them from washing over his face momentarily, or tangling around his belt.

Minerva clutched the side of her skirt tightly, frightened at the feeling that it was going to blow upwards. "My goodness! Are we having some sort of hurricane?!" she called over the loud wind whipping through the trees.

Albus Dumbledore shook his head and slowly pointed to the sky, just as it flashed unnaturally blue.

The sky looked like what a night sky should look like, with the bright stars blinking and twinkling, except that there was a monstrous black storm cloud rumbling slowly towards the school. It appeared like blue bolts of electricity were snapping and crackling around the huge dark cloud. The cloud was making the buzzing sound of high voltage electricity, but at the same time, it growled like a mild thunderstorm, and was even strangely muted.

"What _is_ that!?" Minerva said, unsure of what the foreboding cloud meant.

Dumbledore stared at the cloud, watching its sluggish approach. "I fear...." he started then was quiet.

The wind calmed slightly.

"Fear what, Albus?"

Dumbledore stood still like a statue, not blinking, not responding, his eyes fixed on the cloud. He suddenly took his eyes away from the cloud, blinked several times and shook his head. "Nothing, nothing." he mumbled. "Never mind. Silly thought. Couldn't happen...." he turned and said one last thing before abruptly heading back inside, "....have to keep an eye on things....."

Minerva found Dumbledore's behaviour to be very odd, and she didn't care if he thought his idea of the meaning or identity of the cloud was silly, she still wanted to hear it. Anything he could come up with would surely be infinitely better than whatever she could think of it.

She supposed this was not the time to ask, pester or persist, so she made no comment and solemnly followed him inside.

As soon as the doors shut behind the pair, the wind picked up to full force again, and the sounds of the strange black cloud seemed somehow magnified. Slowly, the frightening phenomenon moved closer to Hogwarts.

* * *

Sirius shot bolt upright in the Common Room chair. He didn't remember what he'd been creaming about, but some sort of loud noise had woken him up. He looked around, saw nothing out of order, and his heart rate began to slow. Must've been part of his dream... 

He yawned almost immediately. The glittering banner was sputtering, and only dribbled sparkles every few seconds. His hair was thick with the glitter as he stood, and they fell everywhere. He shook his head, grinning, watching them settle on the chair.

"So much for the all-nighter." he mumbled aloud, and saw the handful of earlier go-getters all snoring or sleeping, on the floor, on the couch, or draped over some chair.

He had a kink in his back and decided to go up to bed. As he did so, he noticed the clock on the wall told him the time was about four-thirty in the morning. As he trudged up the dorm steps, he stopped as the heart-stopping loud noise sounded again. It wasn't a dream that time. He'd really heard it, and it was really loud. How was it that no one else was awake?

He hurried up the steps into the dorm. Was it thunder? But he heard no rain....

The dormitory was washed in brilliant blue light when he arrived, and it was not the type of light that the moon would give off. He walked past James' bed - noting by the noises he made that was very much still asleep - to the window, where the site outside thoroughly confused him.

A massive black cloud was hovering over the Forbidden Forest. Long, crackling bolts of blue lightning or electricity were snapping around it. The bolts slowly began to reach down the Forest tops and intertwine beneath the cloud, forming a tornado like structure. The bolts suddenly began to spin faster and faster, until they really were a blue-white tornado underneath the cloud.

Wind whistled sharply all around the castle, rattling the windows and pulling leaves and twigs into the air. Another smash of thunder-like noise sounded and Sirius nearly jumped out of his skin. How was no on hearing this!?

The electric blue tornado began to widen, and now small trees could be seen flying up from the Forest floor to get sucked into the spinning blots. There was a deafening crack of thunder, this one much louder than the rest. Sirius clapped his hands over his ears, but it still hurt.

"Wretched thunderstorms...." someone mumbled.

There were a few other grunts and groans and it was apparent others had been woken by the most recent noise. Sirius wanted to say something to alert them to what was going on, but his tongue wasn't functioning.

Now the swirling bolts seemed frozen. The leaves, small trees, twigs and such suddenly dropped to the ground from mid-air. Out of the top of the storm cloud, and travelling down inside the frozen tube of electricity was a blinding ball of white light. It was so intensely bright that Sirius had to look away.

More groans from the others.

"Turn off the light, you git...." someone said, and the sound of pillows being pulled over one's eyes and ears was made from several beds.

The bright white ball reached the ground somewhere in the Forest and abruptly went out. There was a third crack of thunder, this one significantly quieter than the last. The bolts sped up again, this time in the reverse way they had before. The small trees and things that had been sucked into the tunnel cloud before, were now being blown away from the spiral of lightning. The tornado receded back up into the cloud. The cloud began to crackle with the blue electricity again, and suddenly began to rapidly shrink until Sirius could barely see it. When it was no more than a black and blue pin-prick of substance against the sky, there was a loud "pop", and the now little cloud exploded magnificently like a huge blue firework. The bits of sparkles rained down on the Forest below.

"What was that?" James moaned.

"Thunderstorm." Remus answered sleepily. "Go back to sleep."

Sirius couldn't his eyes away from the Forest, or he would've answered. He opened his mouth to protest and explain what he'd seen when he saw something emerge from the Forest. It looked like a hooded figure, walking slowly but yet with purpose. The figure stopped, twitched its head from side to side.

Sirius' mouth hung open and he blinked - the figure was gone.

He gripped the windowsill, his mouth still open. What was going _on?!_

"James..." he said shakily. No answer. "James!" he said louder, but he didn't want to wake anyone else. Still no answer.

"Remus!" he hissed, not taking his eyes away from the spot where the figure had disappeared, hoping to catch another glimpse or clue to help him figure out what had just happened. Also, no answer. "_Remus!!"_

He heard renewed snores, and knew his friends were back in dreamland. Should he wake them now, or wait 'till morning?

He could feel fatigue nagging at him to climb into bed, and his adrenaline was beginning to subside. Sirius very unwillingly turned away from the window and climbed into bed. For several minutes he could think of nothing but what he had just saw.

He stared at the top of his bed canopy, his bed hangings shut. What did it mean? What was it? What, exactly, just happened? Who was the figure? Was it good, or bad?

Finally, as the sun began to creep over the horizon, sleep managed to take over. Sirius' sleep was very unrestful, however, and his thoughts and dreams were plagued with electric blue tornadoes and disappearing hooded figures.

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A/n: So? So? What do ya think? Drop me a line! Review! (just no swearing, please!) By the way, excuse the typos, b/c its late and I'm just trying to get this up (lol). Oh, check out my bio frequently so you know what's goin on with me and my fics! ;) 


	4. Chapter 4 Missing Peter Returns

A/n: Next chapter, finally up. Super huge thank you to all my reviewers. In reference to the Quidditch match in chapter 2, where Gryffindor completely wiped out Slytherin: it most likely wouldn't actually happen b/c Slytherin is actaully really good at Quidditch. However, I took some artistic license and mostly just _wanted_ to see them lose that badly, so I did (lol, fellow authors, you know how it is). I can't tell you who the hooded figure is, only that its NOT Peter - honest. I didn't get Vadamir from any movie, and if its familiar, or it does happen to be from some movie, then I apologize now, 'cuz I just made it up. Anyways, some strange things are brewing that you probly won't get a strong "clue" to 'till later, but stick with me and trust me! I got it all worked out... Anyways, enjoy:D

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**Chapter 4**

Morning arrived, clear, bright and cloudless, showing no signs of the strange and frightening storm that had occurred during the night.

Sirius absent-mindedly got dressed, still mulling over what he'd seen. Had it been a dream? Had he somehow imagined it? It _was_ possible... He definitely was going to talk to James, and most likely Remus about it, and he hoped they would believe him, or at least add something to his answerless questions.

As he headed out of the dorm with his shirt on backwards, he didn't notice that Peter's bed covers were not rumpled from last night's usage. At the bottom of the steps, he found James and Remus waiting for him as usual. Remus yawned.

"Not enough sleep, Moony?" Sirius asked.

Remus smirked. Apparently you didn't either there, Padfoot."

"Eh?"

Remus pointed to Sirius' chest. "You shirt is on backwards, smart guy."

"Oh." Sirius adjusted it as James laughed out loud.

"Was some thunderstorm last night though, eh boys?" Remus said.

"Ya." James said plainly and glanced around the Common Room.

"Ya..." Sirius rubbed his hands together, just itching to tell his friends about last night. He opened his mouth to speak when James cut in,

"Er, is Wormtail still up there?"

Sirius shook his head. "I don't think so... why? He didn't already come down?"

Remus looked between the two confusedly. "What? He's not upstairs? I thought he was."

"No... I'm quite sure he wasn't there..."

James darted past them and up the stairs to double check. He returned a moment later and shrugged. "Nope. Guess he must've gone down with Frank, or something."

The three Gryffindor boys headed down to breakfast, all of which were finding it quite hard to believe that Peter hadn't waited for them. The kid practically worshipped the ground they walked on, and definitely wouldn't miss the chance to do something even as menial as walk to breakfast with them. Still, from time to time it'd been known to happen.

They reached the Gryffindor table and were quite surprised to see no Peter anywhere.

"Oi, Frank?"

Frank Longbottom looked up from his _Daily Prophet_. "Yes?"

"You seen Peter yet this morning?" James asked.

Frank thought for a moment and them slowly shook his head. "No, I don't think so... not since last night."

"Hmm. Alright then, if you see him, let us know. Thanks anyways."

Frank nodded and sipped his orange juice. "Will do."

The three friends settled down to eat, each trying to ignore the rising concern they felt for the disappearance of their friend.

The rest of breakfast passed by rather uneventfully, with Sirius' brain still buzzing with the storm's disturbing images. He wanted to tell the other two about it now, but there were too many people around to hear, and Sirius felt as though it should be discussed in private. There had been no chance on the way down from breakfast, because as soon as they'd reached the sixth floor, a group of girls, some Gryffindor, some Hufflepuff, and a Ravenclaw, had all followed, giggling and blushing and mumbling things among themselves.

It wasn't until after breakfast when the three managed to be alone in the hall on the fourth floor that Sirius finally found an opportunity to tell James and Remus about what he'd seen. In a way, he was almost glad that Peter wasn't around, because that meant that Sirius didn't have to try and devise a way to get rid of him for a little while.

He stopped them and immediately plunged into his story, sparing no detail, until he'd reached the end. He added that he felt like he was sure it wasn't a dream, and he wanted to know what they thought about the whole thing.

When Sirius had finished, Remus and James were quiet for several seconds. Finally, James said,

"So what exactly does it all mean?"

Sirius turned to Remus. "I was hoping Moony could enlighten us." he half-smiled wryly. "You're the smart one, after all."

James copied Sirius' smile and also turned to Remus.

Remus bit his lip and his forehead crinkled in thought. A moment later he relaxed his features and shook his head. "I don't know... I don't think I've ever heard or read of anything like this before."

"But you guys do believe me?" Sirius glanced from one to the other. "Do you think I could've been dreaming?"

"Of course we believe you, Padfoot!" James said and patted Sirius on the shoulder. "What kind of friends would be otherwise?"

"Well, I would've been skeptical, except for the fact that I heard the noises also." Remus said matter-of-factly. "I thought it didn't sound quite like thunder, but, I _was_ half-asleep. I just assumed it had to be thunder."

Sirius let out his breath a little. He was sure that James would say he believed him, even if he didn't, but he had been worried that Remus would be very doubtful and not bother to set out to prove it, just dismissing it as a crazy dream.

They were quiet for a moment, each trying desperately to rack their brain for some sort of clue or hint to help them with the mystery of the electric storm cloud.

Remus finally sighed and flopped his hands to his side. "I don't know. I'll check the library as soon as I get the chance."

The other two nodded and they started walking back towards the Gryffindor Tower.

"By the way," James said. "This has nothing to do with anything, but maybe we should see if Peter is back yet."

"Right."

The three Gryffindor boys were quiet for a few moments, walking leisurely down the hall, and it wasn't long after they'd exited the hall on the fourth floor that James broke the silence again.

"So, Padfoot, if he's the smart one," he pointed his thumb briefly at Remus. "Then what does that make you and me?" he sounded like he was trying to be serious, but was failing at it.

"Well," Sirius also attempted to keep a straight face, but for some reason was finding it increasingly difficult. "You're the... brawns, and I'm the good-looking one." he grinned widely.

"Oh _really?"_

"Really!"

"_I'm_ the brawn?"

"_You're_ the brawn."

"And _you're_ the good-looking one?"

"_I'm_ the good-looking one."

The two smirked at each other, on the verge of bursting into fits of laughter.

"So then what is Peter?" Remus piped up, a smile creeping across his features.

Sirius thought for a moment. "Lucky?"

They all burst out laughing, severely startling a man in a painting they were passing. When he regained his breath, Remus tried to protest and defend Peter by saying he really wasn't _that_ annoying _most_ of the time, but James and Sirius popped in a comment here and there and it just made it all the more funny. They all secretly agreed that Peter was a good kid, he was their friend, it was just that he was the easiest to tease, and teasing him in general was just too much fun.

* * *

Sirius, Remus and James reached Gryffindor Tower not long after and entered the Common Room, hoping to find some sign of their friend. They were not disappointed. No sooner had James suggested they first check the dorm, then young Peter came bounding down the steps.

"Here you are!" Remus said. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, you're back! I was just going to come get you from breakfast." his face was flushed and sweaty, as though he had just run a mile, and he was grinning from ear to ear. He held his stubby hands clasped in front of his chest. "Come upstairs! I got a surprise for you! Come!"

The other three exchanged glances before reluctantly following an over-excited Peter. James in particular had received a few too many of Peter's post-Quidditch victory surprises to get too happy or excited.

"What is it, Peter?" James half-sighed, ignoring the smirk from Sirius. In his mind's eye, he briefly imagined a pile of four leaf clovers on his bed... or a garland around the top of his bed... he smiled and almost laughed aloud at the next crazy image to flit through his mind: maybe Peter had knit him clothes out of millions of four-leaf clovers...

They reached the dorm, and in one swift motion, Peter pulled back the hangings on his bed, which was revealed to be piled high with a wild assortment of objects - or food items, rather.

James spotted several boxes and bags of all kinds of candy, such as Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Fizzing Whizzbees, Pepper Imps and Ice Mice. There were numerous packages of blood flavoured lollipops, floating sherbert balls, exploding bon-bons, Cockroach Clusters, Droobles Best Blowing Gum - in fact, it looked as though a good portion of Honeydukes had exploded and landed itself on Peter's bed.

"Pete..." James really didn't know what to say. He liked the idea of all the goodies, but something was wrong with this picture...

"Where'd you get all this?" Remus said sharply.

"Honeydukes of course!" Peter said brightly, clasping his hands in front of his chest once again. "Where else?"

Sirius' eyes were stuck on the 6-pack of take-home Butterbeer. Already his mouth was watering, just thinking of how it tasted...

"And... you paid for it, of course?" Remus asked.

Peter's smile shrunk a little, and the wind in his sails seemed to deflate some. "Of - of c-course..." he said unconvincingly.

Sirius' eyes shot from the Butterbeer to Peter. "You _stole_ it?"

Peter began twisting his hands around uncomfortably. "I... I-I... n-no, well, I-I..."

Remus shook his head, clearly not impressed or okay with Peter's surprise.

Sirius, however, was trying to hold in his laughter (why did he always half to laugh at times like these? In fact, why did he have to laugh so often?). So far he was managing to keep his grin mostly suppressed, although he was quite sure any little comment could easily set him off. He definitely realized the magnitude of what Peter had done, and how truly wrong it was that he _had_ done it. But, the fact that it was Peter who had done it - timid, 'lucky', immature little Peter Pettigrew - rather than himself or James, somehow made the situation very amusing.

He glanced over at James, who was avoiding Sirius' eyes by staring at the ceiling and was running his tongue over his teeth beneath his lips - a very sure sign that James was thinking along the same lines as Sirius, and that he too was trying desperately not to smile or laugh at the situation.

"I can't believe you stole this." Remus said, his voice etched with disappointment.

Peter's face was now flushed not with effort, but with embarrassment.

James finally met Sirius' eyes, and pursed his lips to hide the smile pushing to be on his face.

"I can't either." Sirius said seriously. His eye ever so briefly darted to James, who was still fighting a grin, and Sirius practically lost it. "But good on ya!" he said, but the others only half-understood it, as he and James burst out laughing.

Peter looked hopefully from Sirius to James, purposefully avoiding Remus' penetrating gaze.

Remus was not smiling in the slightest. "You guys think this is funny?"

James managed to gain control of himself first, and said, "Well, yes, actually!"

"How is Peter stealing a hundred Galleons worth of candy from Honeydukes supposed to be funny?" Remus had his arms crossed over his chest, and was giving the others his most disapproving look.

Peter gulped and looked at the floor. He nudged at the floor with his toe.

"Tell you what, Remmie, if Pete promises never to do it again, will you join us in enjoying the feast brought to us?" Sirius said after gasping a few breaths and gaining back control of himself.

Remus shook his head. "This is not okay! He _stole_ it! Doesn't that mean _anything_ to you two?"

Sirius shrugged and said nothing. He knew that Peter was in the wrong - knew it and understood it - but his prankster side couldn't help him from thinking along the lines of 'ah well, who cares?'. Of course, his stomach couldn't help thinking along the lines of 'yum'.

"No?" Remus glanced at James, who looked guiltily away. "No, I guess it wouldn't matter to two notorious prats, such as yourselves, _Potter _and _Black_." he turned on his heel and exited the dorm, his robe billowing out behind him.

"Aw, c'mon, Remus!" Sirius said, feeling quite guilty already. Remus only used their last names when he was really angry. He _was_ right. "He'll take half of it back!" he called after Remus.

"More than half!" James added.

Sirius mumbled to Peter, "Won't you, Peter?" he shot him a 'you're-going-to-whether-you-like-it-or-not' looks, and gave him a nudge.

"Er, ya! More than half!" Peter yelled down the stairs after Remus (who was most likely not in Gryffindor Tower anymore).

James sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Just take it all back, Pete."

Peter looked crestfallen. "But... James..."

Sirius turned around quickly to face James. "Prongs! You off your rocker! Free candy and lots of it! Nearly all you can eat! I mean, he's taking more than half back already, but _all_!"

Peter nodded and echoed stupidly, "Ya! Nearly all you can eat!"

James shook his head. "Moony's right. Its stolen." he sighed. "Unless we pay for it, its all going back. As much as I want to, my conscience is getting to me."

Sirius put a hand on James' shoulder. "You and that conscience." he sighed also, and stared longingly at the pile of treats spread across Peter's bed. "Take it back, Wormtail."

Again, Peter looked forlornly at his two friends. "But - b-but I... you..."

"Just take it back." Sirius said more firmly.

"It was a nice thought, Pete. I appreciate it. But next time, pay for them, alright?" James said more softly, trying to ease the situation a little. He didn't want Peter to be _totally_ crushed. He offered a half-smile, which Peter acceptingly returned.

Peter sort-of nodded and grabbed an old, beat up-looking sack from under his bed and began stuffing the eatable items into it.

"Can I ask how'd you get 'em here?" Sirius asked, his arms crossed, trying hard not to think about the food he was being forced to miss out on. _'Darn conscience.' _he thought.

Peter brightened slightly and quickly explained. "Well, I went down to the Shack, like we always do before the full moon, you know - with the passage under the Willow and stuff. Then, as a rat, I went to Honeydukes, drug anything I wanted down into the passage in the basement of Honeydukes - that took awhile, since I had to do it all as a rat, especially the Buterbeer." He glanced at Sirius and snickered, while Sirius and James felt like they had missed the 'joke'.

Peter continued, "Then I went back to being me, and hauled it all in this here sack, down the passage and came out the one-eyed witch on the third floor. After that, I hauled it up here - luckily everyone was at breakfast, so I didn't run into anyone." he sighed slightly as if very proud of himself. "Took me pretty much all night. Didn't get back up here 'till you guys did, pretty much. The lot is pretty heavy. Wicked thunderstorm last night, though, eh?" he rubbed his hands together.

The two others exchanged glances so quick, they even barely noticed they'd done it. James cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Er, ya, so, we were wondering where you were. Anyways, I s'pose I oughta go find Remus."

Peter began refilling his sack as Sirius nodded to James' comment.

James took a step or two towards the door, and Sirius snatched up the six-pack of Butterbeer. "But I'm keepin' this."

James couldn't help but smile. "As long as you give me one."

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A/n: As usual, please leave me a review and tell me what you think. I love getting feeback, and up 'till now have not requested there be no flames. I got some a short time ago on one of my other stories and they were really upsetting and unpleasant, so now I ask, no flames please. But if I suck, then tell what I can do better! Above all, no swearing please and thank you (I really do appreciate it).

Also, there is going to be some stuff in later chapters (which I already have written, they're just not into my puter yet) which mayappear to be taken from a TV show and/or movie, and I swear to you all here and now, that it is purely coincidence. I had it all done, and then I saw a commercial for Charmed (I think it was...?) and it had like exactly what I wrote appearing in this commercial, so ya. I don't watch the show, and I swear I didn't know (don't sue me, I have nothing, lol).


	5. Chapter 5 Honeydukes

A/n: Next chapter is UP! Sorry that the first bunch of chapters have been rather boring. I'm getting there - the story should definitely pick up after this! (Ahem, that's not forshadowing...) Read on and let me know what you think!

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**Chapter 5**

By the next morning, Remus had forgiven them, James and Sirius had already polished off all six Butterbeers (giving Peter one, offering one to Remus who refused, but ended up taking it anyways) and they resumed going to classes. Sirius had by no means forgotten about the electric storm on Saturday night, but he was already too busy with homework to dwell on it.

The Marauders got back to their usual pranks the moment they entered class, much to the chagrin and amusement of students and teachers alike.

The day went by normally - quite boring in most aspects - and although Sirius fully expected something out of the ordinary to take place, nothing did.

* * *

It wasn't until two days later that something finally happened.

After their last class on Wednesday, the four Marauders were heading back to Gryffindor Common Room and Sirius gave James a small nod. James caught the signal and began talking intently with Remus. Sirius slowed his pace, subtly letting the others move ahead. He gently pulled on the back of Peter's robes, and when Peter stared questioning at him, Sirius put a finger to his lips in a "ssh" manner, and gave him a significant look which clearly told Peter to fall back subtly and silently as well.

They slowed more and more until they stopped, letting James and Remus go ahead, and then Sirius pulled Peter into a darkened doorway.

"What's going on?" Peter asked.

"Ssh." Sirius shoved his hands deep into his pockets as he talked, and glanced over his shoulder down the hall at Remus and James, who continued walking. He pulled several Sickles from his pockets. "Remus won't let you steal them, so here. James and I put some money together, you can add some if you want." he dumped the money in Peter's hands.

Peter looked down at the silver coins glinting in his hands, then back up at Sirius, a mix of shock and confusion crossing his features. "What do I do with this?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Gosh, Pete, sometimes you can be so thick." he said good-naturedly. "Honeydukes, Pete. Money for Honeydukes."

Peter nodded, understanding finally dawning on his face. "Oh, I get it now. More Butterbeer?"

Sirius grinned. "We just can't wait until the next scheduled Hogsmeade weekend." He clapped his hand on Peter's shoulder. "You got it."

Peter smiled back, proud to be entrusted with such amounts of money. He carefully put the Sickles in his pocket.

"We outta catch up with Moony and Prongs." Sirius said and he and Peter headed back down the hall, the way they had been going moments earlier. "Wouldn't want Moony to think we were up to something." he winked.

Peter was slightly confused - but weren't they up to something? - he said nothing, however, choosing rather to simply smile and follow.

* * *

Later that evening, shortly after Remus had decided to head to bed (having finished all his homework hours ago - most of it last night, in fact), James and Sirius (who had not done a single word of their homework for three days straight and were now faced with much of it due the next morning) stayed in the Common Room, scribbling madly away, regretting their previous negligence, but knowing it would surely happen again tomorrow.

Around that time, Peter stood, stretched and announced loudly to no one I particular that he was 'going for a walk'.

James smirked. "Um, no one else is in the Room, Wormtail. You can say you're going to Honeydukes."

Peter's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "How did _you_ know?"

Sirius shook his head. "Dull one, we _pooled_ our money, remember? Me and James?"

Peter looked from one to the other, that same familiar look of understanding moving across his face. "Oh... right. Well, no matter. I will most definitely be back within a few hours or less. I'm only getting Butterbeer - right?"

"And a pack of Drooble's for me." James said, lifting his quill momentarily.

"Pack of Whizzbees for me." said Sirius.

Peter nodded and looked like he was mentally writing the other's requests. "Ok. See you soon!" he fairly bounded out of the Common Room.

James and Sirius looked at each other, and chuckled, pleased with themselves for paying Peter to bring them back candy. Promptly, however, they each heaved a sigh and got back to their extensive pile of homework.

* * *

Peter was right that his task did not take too long. As a rat, he scurried down the passageway that lead straight into Honeydukes. At the end of the passage, instead of heading up the stairs as if he were human, he instead hurried up a small edge in the wall, just big enough for him, which took him into a small, rat-sized tunnel, which then led to a rat-sized hole in the far corner on the floor in the basement of Honeydukes. He went upstairs into the main room, and turned into himself.

Within moments he'd gathered the things he needed - two six packs of Butterbeer, a pack of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum for James, a pack of Fizzing Whizzbees for Sirius and a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans for himself (and Remus if he wanted any). He left the pile of Sickles on the counter - it turned out to be just enough, but with a fair amount of change - with a lovely looking note that read, _"Thanks very much! Keep the change!' _And on the back in tiny print was exactly what Peter had bought, just in case they needed to know exactly.

He descended the stairs, realizing at once that with the items in his arms he would have to stay a human. He shrugged. No matter. However, once he'd reached the basement and headed for the area where the Trap Door for the human part of the passageway was, he saw an inconvenient problem.

Over top of the trap door were several very large crates, full of the store's new inventory. Just beside the crates were several large barrels, also full. Peter had not noticed in his animal state.

He set his things down on the steps and immediately set to work trying to move the crates. At first he tried to move the whole stack of crates, and found that was impossible. They were far too heavy. Next he tried just lifting the top one off and moving it over, but it also was extremely heavy, and what he had thought had been several neatly stacked crates turned out to be two very large, very heavy, very immovable crates, surrounded by light little crates.

Once breaking into a sweat, Peter decided to go the other way he knew. It may be more of a hike, but he clearly couldn't move the crates and he didn't know a charm or spell that could move the crates for him.

_'Well that's annoying.' _Peter thought and gathered up his purchased things. He headed back up the stairs and at the door used a quick unlocking spell to let himself out. Once outside, he quickly used another simple spell and re-locked the door behind him. He would just go to Hogwarts by way of the passageway in the Shrieking Shack, and inform the others when he got back of the current Honeydukes passageway blockage.

Since the Shack was only used by Remus during his transformations under the full moon, and the occasional Marauder hang-out, and full moon wasn't for a few days yet, it surprised Peter greatly to see lights on and smoke coming from the chimney of the Shack.

_'They must've decided to meet me there.' _Peter assumed, but couldn't shake an odd nagging feeling in his stomach. He forced himself not to think anything of the yellow light filtering out the broken, unboarded windows.

He opened the door with some force, and it squealed loudly from lack of usage. Peter winced at the noise and hurriedly closed it behind him. "Hello?" he called, and waited a moment for a response. Nothing.

He shrugged and began ascending the stairs, moving towards the room where the light was coming from. The stairs creaked eerily under his weight, and it finally occurred to Peter that something might not be right. That nagging feeling in his stomach had grown steadily, and was no to the point that he was becoming physically scared the closer he got to the room.

"Hello?" Peter tried again, much louder this time, although he was significantly closer to the room than before.

The light flickered suddenly, as if it was candle that had been whipped at by a quick, hard breeze. At the same time, there was the sound of fabric swishing, followed a foot-fall like creak that was not made by Peter who had gone stock still. It was quiet again.

Peter's mouth went dry, his heart sped up and his knees began to quiver. He manoeuvred the parcels around in his arms and instinctively drew his wand, holding it out in front of him. His heart was drumming, and that horrible feeling in his stomach told him something ominous waited in that room. The other part of him reasoned it was just James and Sirius, probably with monster masks of some sort from Zonko's, and they were waiting there, ready to scare the pants off Peter.

He reached the door leading to the lit room, and it was ajar enough that a child could fight through without moving the door, thus letting a significant amount of light into the hall and stairway. Peter shut his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, desperately trying to clam himself down and listen to his sensible side.

_'They're standing there, ready to scare you. Or they have a water bucket over the door, or some other silly prank. Just brace yourself.' _Peter thought. _'They're gonna scare the daylights outta you. Don't let them know you're scared - they'll only laugh at you later. Flinch if you have to. Nothing more.'_

He opened his eyes, feeling a lot better, and almost ready to go in there and take whatever they had set up for him. He was determined not to scream or cry out, and he pushed open the door.

No one. Nothing.

No water or anything worse fell on his head as he stepped through the threshold. He walked into the room, and no one jumped out to scare him. He waited, and still held his breath, still bracing himself for it. He cautiously turned to his left, towards the window, and saw several candles burning about the room, and two lanterns in the one corner, and one hanging from the ceiling. Unconvinced no one else was in the room, he waited a moment, giving them a moment to sneak up on him.

It worked, for behind him, there was a quick swish of robes and another tiny creak of a footfall. Peter slowly turned around, knowing they were behind him now. _'Here it comes...' _he thought.

"Ok guys - " he started, but stopped abruptly as soon as him eyes saw what had been behind him.

It was most definitely not James or Sirius.

A tall figure, nearly seven feet in height, stood there. It was wearing long thick black robes, covered by a long black overcoat, which was really more just a cape and a hood than an overcoat. The hood completely shadowed the figure's face. No hands or feet were visible, but by the lump around the stomach, it was apparent the hands were tucked inside.

Peter was frozen with fear. His stomach turned to ice. "I... I...I..."

The figure spoke in a bone-chilling hiss-like growl. "Are you Jamesssss Potter...?"

Peter dropped the things he was holding and took a step back. He shook his head vigorously. "N–n-n-n-n-no! No! I-I-I-I'm n-n-n-not...!"

The figure took a step toward Peter, leaned forward and sniffed loudly. It returned to its previous rigid posture, seemingly satisfied that Peter was indeed not James Potter. It hissed, "Wheeeere issss heeee?"

"N-n-n-not - I-I m-m-mean, n-n-no - I m-m-mean - " Petrified, Peter could not string a sentence together, only fumbling and stuttering like a blithering idiot.

"Where?" It demanded suddenly and angrily, fed up with Peter's stammering, and took a very threatening step towards Peter.

Peter took two hasty steps backwards and tripped partially on his own feet and partially on the things he'd dropped. He tumbled to the floor, and found he was backed against the wall under the window. Shaking like a leaf and unable to think even slightly clearly, he tried to say something and didn't know what.

"WHERE?" It raised its voice and took another step toward a now whimpering Peter. It revealed an arm from beneath its layers of clothing, and held it up, palm out, as if to receive a 'high-five'. The skin of the hand was dangerously pale, with a slight sickly green-yellow tinge to it. A small swirl of bright blue substance began forming in the center of its hand. "Don't maaaaake me kiiiiill yooooou..." the thing breathed evilly.

"That way!" Peter blurted, not knowing what he was doing, far too scared to think or act even slightly rationally. He pointed in the direction of Hogwarts and the passageway from his position on the floor. His greatest fear was to die, and here it was facing him. He could do nothing else... He gulped hard. "Castle..."

"Yoooooou wassssssste my timmmme." the thing sneered, and even though its face was still deeply shadow, the candle-light caught on silvery, razor-sharp teeth. The blue swirl in its hand was much larger now, having grown to the size of a small volleyball, and was crackling like a ball of neon blue electricity.

Peter trembled. "W-what is t-t-that?" He truly didn't want to know and wasn't entirely sure why he had asked.

The thing hissed loudly like a massive snake about to kill, threw its arm back, then it forward as if throwing a baseball across a pitch.

Peter cried out and the electric blue ball hit him, immediately snapping across his body in high voltage. He felt burning pain, aching and sharp pain, brief numbness and then he lost completely lost consciousness.

_'Sorry James...'_

_

* * *

_

A/n: Oooo.. scary! What's going to happen? I guess you'll have to wait and find out! Alright, gimme a review, like it or hate it. Just no flames (they hurt) and no swearing, please:D


	6. Chapter 6 The Attack

A/n: Hey hey! New chapter is here. Happy Summer to everyone! (Guess who's graduated...!) So now I should be able to put up new chapters faster. (Note the should, lol) Anyways, major huge thank you to all my reviewers. You rock and make my day complete! Before you read on, all I have to say is things are really starting to happen in this chapter. I hope no one is confused, but I can't give away anything all the same. You'll just have to wait for other chapters to find out... mwah ha. ;) Read on, and don't forget to review.

* * *

**Chapter 6**

Sirius yawned widely before speaking. "Where is lazy ol' Pete?"

James snorted. "Hauling goodies."

The pair grinned at each other briefly.

"But he was only getting a few things..." Sirius let his sentence trail off.

"Ya, but you know Pete." James smirked. "A small task can often be greatly exaggerated." The two boys chuckled.

"S'pose we oughta join Moony, then." Sirius lazily suggested.

"S'pose we oughta indeed." James sighed as he sat up in his bed, his hair messier than usual, if it was possible, as it always was in the mornings.

The two readied themselves for the day, and joined Remus in the Common Room. Surprisingly, Remus did not ask where Peter was. Feeling no obligation to offer the information, or even bring the subject up, the trio headed down to the Great Hall where they enjoyed some breakfast before returning quickly to Gryffindor Tower to gather their books for class. Still, there seemed to be no sign of Peter.

"Odd. I would've thought he'd have been back by now..." James scratched his head as he stared at Peter's empty, seemingly untouched bed.

"Me too." Sirius agreed heavily. "Can't worry about it now, though. We have an Arithmacy class to attend." he gave James a pat on the shoulder.

James slowly nodded. "Let's go then."

* * *

As the day progressed further and further, the trio still did not see Peter anywhere. He did come to class, and when they checked the dormitories both at lunch and mid-afternoon, he still had not returned. Around this time, the other boys began to get significantly more worried. 

"D'you think he's stuck somewhere?" James whispered to Sirius during History of Magic.

"D'you think he got locked out or in, somewhere?" Sirius whispered back.

"D'you think he got caught?" James suggested and the two of the exchanged mournful and guilty glances.

Remus leaned sideways. "D'you think you two could tell me what's going on? Where the heck is Peter?"

This time James exchanged thoroughly guilty glances. Sirius gulped and he knew he would be the one to do the telling, seeing as he was sitting closest to Remus. He turned in his seat so as to face Remus properly.

"Now, look here, Moony... don't be angry," his darted from Remus to James, who was leaning around Sirius to be part of the conversation. "We gave him money and everything - "

Remus sighed and cut Sirius off. "I figured. Or more precisely, I knew it."

The other two looked rather confused, and a little apprehensive. How did Remus figure it out? Had he somehow overheard? Had Peter told him? Had he simply just guessed? Was he going to cause another small row over the issue?

"You're not as smooth as you think you are." Remus half-smiled, interpreting their expressions correctly. Then his cheeks went slightly pink as he added, "I chipped in a few Sickles myself, and made Wormtail promise not to say anything."

Sirius' mouth dropped open, and James' eyes went wide as saucers. "You - ?"

Remus lifted his shoulder as if to shrug, but stopped mid-way and let it drop. "Well, I kind of had a craving for a Whizzbee, and it _was_ being paid for..." his half-smile became more pronounced, and it seemed he was a little pleased, in spite of himself.

Sirius finally managed to shut his mouth and James' eyes returned to normal. "You never cease to amaze, Moony, my friend." Sirius gave Remus a small clap on the shoulder, and James grinned.

"From you, I'm not quite sure that's a compliment." Remus winked and the three boys chuckled.

* * *

Later that evening, around eleven p.m., Peter had still not come back and the level of worry was significantly escalated among the other three Marauders. They sat at a table in the corner of the Common Room, quietly deciding what to until the last straggler finally left for bed. 

"Ok, that's it then. James, you stay here in case he comes back." James nodded and Sirius nodded back. "Remus, you head to the Shack and make sure he's not holed up there for some reason."

"Got it." said Remus.

"I'll try the passage straight into Honeydukes, and see if he got stuck or locked in or something." Sirius stood and the other two followed suit.

"I'll give you the Invisibility Cloak," said James, glancing at Sirius.

"And I get the Map." Remus tilted his head to the side as he said this.

"Right." Sirius nodded, and within minutes the three friends separated to search, or in James' case, to wait, for Peter.

* * *

Sirius double checked that James' Invisibility Cloak was covering all of him before he set out into the dark hallways of Hogwarts en route to the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor. 

He stepped cautiously, as he did not have the Marauder's Map and therefore did not know if a Professor was around the corner or not. He kept his eyes peeled and his ears attuned to any sign of Peter - human or rat. Occasionally, when he was sure no teachers were around, he would whisper things like, "Wormtail, you there?" or "Pete, it's Sirius. Squeak if you can hear me." But he never received a reply.

Here and there a House Ghost passed by, or a portrait made a particularly loud snoring noise. Sirius met no human, however, even when he'd reached his destination and gave the witch's hump a tap with his wand and said the magic word. He slid down into the passageway and at this point, he removed the Cloak and slung it over his arm.

"_Lumos!"_ he held his wand out as a light and made his way down the tunnel, shining it at different shadows on the wall and floor.

"Peter?" he called softly at regular intervals, hoping for some sort of an answer. "Wormtail?"

Still, there was no answer, and Sirius was becoming even more worried. What had happened to him? Had he even come this way? It seemed odd that he would have gone by way of the Shrieking Shack and Whomping Willow, but maybe for some reason he did...

Sirius had reached the end of the tunnel and he sighed. 'Where are you kid?' he thought and gave the trap door now above his head a small push with his free hand that should have opened it, but it didn't move.

Confused, Sirius gave it another push, and it didn't budge. He pushed hard with both hands and still the door didn't move. Now slightly more alarmed, Sirius pushed on the door as hard as he could, again with both hands, and thought maybe the door had moved a fraction of an inch.

Trying not to feel panicked, Sirius decided that something heavy must be on top of the trap door so that's why it was not moving. He refused to let himself think that somehow Peter had been caught inside Honeydukes and door now magically sealed. 'He went this way, found it blocked, and went the other way.' he thought determinedly.

"Well, that's a dead end." he mumbled aloud and started heading back, squelching the rising panic deep within. "He had to have gone the other way...he's fine... just fine..."

He rubbed his forehead and took a deep calming breath. 'I'm sure Moony will find him, then. Prat probably locked himself up somehow...' he thought.

Not entirely satisfied with that thought, but feeling a little better nonetheless - he wasn't going to panic unless there was reason to - he quickened his pace and blocked further panic-related thoughts completely from his mind.

* * *

Remus slipped out the great oak doors leading to the Entrance Hall and was met with cool, fresh air. He'd kept a close eye on the Marauder's Map to ensure he avoided any teachers or ghosts. 

He double checked the map to make sure no one was out on the grounds with him, saw no dots and names. Then he pointed his wands at the parchment and mumbled, "Mischief managed". The writing on the map disappeared and Remus folded the map up and slid it securely into the inside pocket of his robes.

Remus sighed. Where, oh where, was little Peter? He knew he shouldn't have added his money to the pot and let Peter go on his way when he'd figured out that they were sending him. His 'Sirius-James' side had encouraged him, with thoughts like, 'It _is_ paid for...'. His logical 'Remus' side was the one taking over now, as he walked across the chilled grounds, hoping Sirius had found Peter.

There seemed to be an extra amount of chill to the air, even though the day had been a hot one. He continued walking towards the Whomping Willow as any breeze seemed to completely die. What was even more odd than the sudden stopping of air flow, or extra cold to the air, was the odd creeping feeling that Remus was getting, that made him feel like someone was watching him.

Remus looked behind him casually, sure no one was there, and sure enough, he saw no one. He shook himself physically and kept walking. He was tired, and easily attributed his feelings in part to that, in part to his worry about Peter, and in part to his imagination.

A few steps later, the hair on the back of Remus' neck was beginning to prickle, and the sensation of feeling watched was much stronger, accompanied by a scary sensation of being followed. Remus whipped around and still, he saw no one. Nothing. Remus swallowed, and quickened his pace in the direction of the Whomping Willow.

He suddenly heard the distinct swish of robes after his ears pricked up, and a footfall not far behind him. He stopped dead and turned around in the same instant. His eyes scanned the area quickly - every crevice, every shadow, every lump - all the while, his heart pounding in his ribcage. Someone _was_ following him, he was sure. The noise he'd heard had not been his imagination.

'I bet its Sirius under the Cloak trying to scare me... Pete must be back...' Remus decided, calming himself down. He heard another quiet swish, and figured his suspicions were confirmed. He took a small breath and turned to face the Willow, ready to jump when he was scared by Sirius.

He gave a loud yelp and stumbled back onto the ground as his nose nearly touched fabric. Standing between Remus and the Willow was a tall, ominous figure whose appearance was strongly reminiscent of a Dementor. It was far too tall to be Sirius, but too short to be James on top of Sirius or vice-versa. If it _was_ them, they were doing an exceptioanlly good job.

Remus scrambled to his feet and could feel sweat forming on his forehead as fear caused his heart to beat wildly. He opened his mouth to say something but the figure spoke first, only making it startling clear that the thing was most definitely not James or Sirius.

"Wheeere isss Jamesss Potterrr?" it hissed in a bone-chilling voice.

Remus' mouth stayed open, but out of shock more than anything else. James? "What?" he was sure what he'd heard, but he wasn't sure what it meant.

It sniffed the air, made a grunting noise, and then seemed to turned his hooded face more at Remus. "You arrre not hhhim." It sounded a little irritated, as though it had clearly been expecting him to be James Potter.

"What do you want with him?" he asked, forcing his voice to sound steady. The thing hissed quietly as if chuckling, but otherwise completely ignored Remus' question. "Where isss he?" it asked again.

Remus lifted his chin slightly in defiance as an unusual and unexpected courage washed through him. '_I'm not in Gryffindor for nothing._' he thought, trying desperately to ignore how increasingly difficult it was becoming to merely stand as his knees were shaking so bad. "Not here." He crossed his arms over his chest to stops his hands' trembling. "You've got the wrong place."

The thing hissed angrily. "Liar!" An arm made out of thick black smoke suddenly shot out from under the thing's robes, from somewhere around its chest. The arm grabbed Remus around the neck, lifted him off the ground and threw him back down forcefully, sending him skidding painfully across the grass and dirt.

Remus raised himself off the ground quickly using his arms, knowing bruises were forming after that throw. What did this thing want with James? What - or who - was it? Why was it here?

The smoke arm vanished like a vapour and the hooded thing stepped over to where it was once again just a few feet in front of Remus. "I asssk you again. Where isss he?"

Remus knew he should not be angering the creature before him, but he also knew that as long as it was in his hands, he would not give up the whereabouts of his friend. The intentions of the thing did not seem good.

"I don't know where is he." Remus said as convincingly as possible. He was suddenly worried the thing might try to read his mind, so he quickly forced his mind to be starched blank, other than the repeating thought of, '_I don't know where he is... I don't know where he is... I don't know whe - '_

"You lie! Do not trifle me! I know he is here!" The thing sounded enraged.

Remus had no time to react and move out of the way. Before he could blink, the smoke arm had reappeared and grabbed Remus by the ankle. He was thrown much harder this time, skidding several feet after landing horribly on his shoulder. The grass seemed to slice at him, the dirt burn his exposed skin, and the rocks cut him terribly.

He pushed himself up again, though less quickly, coughing dirt and grass, and throbbing all over. He could feel himself beginning to bleed in several places, however he did not worry about it at that moment.

The thing made a fist with its pale bony hand at its side. "Do not make me kill you like the other one."

"I'm telling the truth!" Remus shouted, immediately forcing the panic to stay deep within at the thing's words, making his mind as blank as fresh parchment.

This time the thing wasted no breath to call Remus a liar or tell him anything. The smoke hand lashed out and struck Remus hard as an iron battering ram in the stomach. He flew across the ground on his back, landed hard, completely winded. Remus gasped for air and struggled to stand up quickly.

The thing, however, didn't allow Remus a moment to recover. It seized him again with the smoke arm, this time around the wrist, and flung him so hard that he landed in very close range of the Whomping Willow's branches.

He tumbled across the rough ground and distinctly heard a loud CRACK, although he wasn't whether it was a bone breaking or branch snapping beneath him as he rolled and landed. Even then, if it had been a bone breaking, he would not have been able to discern where, as pain rushed through him.

"Ssssince you arrre ssso unwilling to hhhelp, I ssshall leave you with thisss." The thing seemed to smile beneath the edges of it black hood, and then the smoke arm shot out like a viper, and hit Remus in the jaw like a concrete fist. Pain exploded through his face and he could see starts sprinkle his vision. The arm then grabbed the back of Remus' robes and roughly deposited him a few feet closer to the Willow, quite within its range.

"Die nowww..." it hissed and snickered.

The braches of the Willow twitched to life, creaking around before coming crashing down like a massive baseball bat to swipe at Remus. He desperately tried to move out of the way as he saw it coming, but the pain was so intense throughout his entire body, he couldn't move. It only got worse.

The enormous branch hit him like a train and threw him like a rag doll. Remus was now most definitely certain he'd never felt that much pain in his entire life and easily would've guessed that all of his ribs were broken. That is, if he had been able to think clearly through the horrible haze of pain in his head.

He could see the Willow winding up for another attack, but could do nothing. He heard sinister laughter coming from the thing, then saw a burst of blue light. He smelt smoke like someone had just blown out a hundred birthday candles. He senses the branches coming straight for him.

One though penetrated his mind before the branch hit him, before he lost consciousness:

'_I am going to die.'_

_

* * *

_

A/n: Oh no! Remus is going to die! What will happen? Is Peter dead as well? Will James and Sirius find Peter? Will they be able to save Remus? Will Sirius be the next to be attacked by this mysterious creature? FIND OUT SOON!

Please leave me a review! I don't care who you are, and for the most part, what you say either. Just don't flame me just b/c, and no swearing, please. If you didn't like it, tell me why and what I can do better. Then everybody's happy. ;)


	7. Chapter 7 Remus and Peter Rescued

A/n: Not much to say... Glad everyone loved the action in that last chapter, and there will be more action soon. Read on!

* * *

**Chapter 7**

"So... a Fendwing Feather then?"

Sirius shrugged. "Dunno."

James shook his head and snapped the book in front of him shut. "I can't think at all."

"Me neither." Sirius wasn't in the mood to capitalize on the comment his friend had just made. Had he been feeling himself, he would have had some clever retort.

Sirius had come back to the Common Room quickly after his fruitless search for Peter and he and James had pulled out their homework in an effort to keep their minds off of Peter's whereabouts. They'd only had their things out for a few moments however, and since neither were concentrating in the slightest, the attempt at homework was turning out to be as equally fruitless as Sirius' search.

James sighed and Sirius turned in his seat to look out the window. He was feeling rather discouraged that Remus nor Peter had returned yet. Out on the grounds, the half moon illuminated Hagrid's cabin and the smoke softly billowing from its chimney. For only a half moon, it was shedding light across the area quite nicely, so that many other things could be seen as distinct recognizable figures. One such outlined figure was the Whomping Willow and it was waving in the air as if it had been disturbed.

Sirius furrowed his brow. The Willow generally only moved unless someone was too close to it... Right away however, he guessed it was Remus heading to the secret passage, though he'd been sure that Remus would have been at the Shack by now. He waited for the Willow's branches to stop, as they always did when the knot at its base was prodded, causing the tree to freeze temporarily.

The branches did not freeze, but leaned back as if winding up for a blow to the ground. In that exact instant, there was a brilliant flash of blue light which briefly lit the area nearby. Sirius gasped as he spotted a human form laying quite still very much in range of the Willow now moving to slam the ground and the body in its path.

"Remus!" Sirius shouted and jumped out of his chair and knocking it over in the process. He didn't know how he knew, he just did. The body was Remus.

"What is it? What's wrong?" James too jumped out of his chair as Sirius threw himself towards the portrait hole.

"Get a Professor and get to the Willow!" Sirius blasted out of the Common Room and ignored that Fat Lady's protests at being flung open so forcefully. He hoped James knew him well enough to recognize the panic in his voice and not hesitate a single second and do exactly what Sirius had told him to do.

He ran hard through the school's halls, barely thinking about anything except going faster for fear of being to late and prepared himself to dodge any teachers and their spells if he came across them. His body was already burning with the sudden effort of running as fast as he was able, but he only pushed harder.

Sirius had no idea what he had just seen happen, where Peter was, if he was ok, what that burst of blue light had meant, if that or any of this had to do with that strange storm he'd witnessed and worst but most importantly of all, if Remus would be alive by the time Sirius reached him.

* * *

Peter was aching horribly all over. He'd never felt this way in his life. He felt very stiff as if he had run for miles and miles the day before and was now feeling the effects of that run now. He was so dizzy that he felt he had spent the last five or ten minutes just spinning on the spot. He was completely disoriented and constantly banged into the earthy walls on either side of him. He knew he was in the passage and that he was moving more or less forward, and that was it.

He stumbled blindly down the pitch black tunnel, falling down much too often, gasping for air, gaining numerous bumps, bruises and scrapes, and even blacking out completely from time to time. Each time he blacked out, he would fall hard, start shaking horribly, then feel nothing until he woke again. When he fell hard enough against his head, stars and fuzz would momentarily cloud his vison.

He had no idea what time of day it was, or even it was day, though he remembered what had happened to him. The memory seemed distant, washed and fuzzy though, like it had happened many, many years ago. He only remembered parts of it, like that thing had tried to kill him, that it wanted to find - and probably kill - James, and that he, Peter, had told the thing to go to the castle. Peter felt desperately ashamed and cowardly and only prayed James was alive when he finally reached the castle.

Peter thought about that time that he should be nearing the end of the tunnel, though he also guessed he could have a fair ways to go as his constant falling, tripping, retching and blacking out would have slowed him down considerably. His knees were terribly wobbly like he was walking on an overly cushy mattress, and his body was trembling like a leaf in the wind all over. He was so sweaty he felt drenched and nearly every time he fell hard he could feel fresh warm blood trickle from some new wound.

He leaned to the side and threw up for the dozenth time, his throat burning and raw. He wanted so badly to be in the castle, in a hospital bed, where Madame Pomfrey would heal whatever was wrong with him, that he found that was almost the only thing keeping his feet moving. That and the fact that he had to warn James.

Finally his knees bashed painfully onto the part of the tunnel where it curved up to the surface. Nausea washed over him and he layed down a minute before it passed. When he looked up a few moments later, he could see the half moon shining extra brightly high in the starry night sky. Peter almost sighed. Soon he would be safe.

For an instant, the moon was obscured by a moving object, but was just as quickly uncovered. Peter forced himself to stand and raise most of his body out of the entrance - in his case, exit - of the tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow. Blearily Peter looked up and realized the movement came from the Willow's branches as they thrashed down towards the ground. Through a spinning head, he could see two figures not too far away.

One of the Willow's branches came down hard, flinging one of the figures a fair distance. Peter wasn't sure he understood. Who could that be? And why was the other person just standing there?

Peter stood fully up, but suddenly felt over come with nausea. His body began shaking violently like it always did before he blacked out and he swayed dangerously. Bone-chilling laughter filled his ears and for an instant, neon blue light filled his eyes.

He fell over onto the base of the Willow, passed out.

* * *

"Remus!" Sirius yelled and barrelled across the grounds to reach his friend's unmoving body. A cloud shifted over the half moon, and even in less moonlight, it was apparent Remus was covered with numerous injuries.

Sirius wasted no time in wrapping his arm around Remus and hauling him in a hurry away from the danger of the Willow. As Sirius was desperately pulling Remus away, however, the branches of the Willow did not move, as if someone had just pressed the know or was holding it down. There was no other explanation for the unnatural stillness of the tree when Sirius was slow close, nor how the Willow had not smashed Remus while Sirius vaulted through the school. He really wanted to see who was holding down the knot, but at the present moment he was more concerned with the limp form laying beside him.

"Remus! Don't be dead!" Sirius cried out as he looked despairingly at Remus' battered face.

"Sirius!"

Sirius jerked his face up and was felt relieved to see James and Professor McGonagall rushing at top speed across the grounds towards him. The moment they reached him, James looked as though he'd just seen a ghost.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked frantically and quickly knelt down beside Remus.

In one breath, Sirius tried to explain. "James and I were in the Common Room and something outside caught my eye and it was the Willow and it was moving and there was a light and he was laying there and it was going to hit him and - "

McGonagal whipped out her wand and conjured a stretcher. "Help me quickly." she said briskly and the two boys helped her put Remus on the stretcher. The moon came out from behind its cloud and James looked paler than ever.

"He's not..." James said and looked as though he were going to be sick. Sirius knew exactly how he felt.

McGonagall either didn't hear James or simply dodged the question, as she jumped up and said, "Hurry! To the hospital wing!"

Had Sirius been in a mood to make things lighter, he would have snapped back, "As if we would take him anywhere else." However, since he was not, he simply gulped and began to follow as McGonagall took off with Remus floating on a stretcher and James right behind her. But then he remembered the still stopped Willow and he stopped as his eyes went straight to the tree's base.

He glanced back at the castle as McGonagall and James dashed up the steps. He wanted to be with James and Remus, but he needed to se why the Willow had stopped. He turned back to look at the Willow, and with only the light of the moonlight, it seemed like a body was at the tree's base... or was it an eye trick?

Sirius reached for his wand and realized he'd left it in the Common Room when he'd left to come save Remus. He cast a worried look at the castle and then at the Willow. It still looked like a body.

He made up his mind to be faster than fast because Remus needed him but he had to make sure whoever that was laying there on the knot didn't also need him. He sprinted towards the unmoving mass sprawled awkwardly right at the entrance to the secret passageway that ran under the Willow leading to the Shrieking Shack. Mere inches away, he was very sure it was a body, and that body twitched and suddenly gasped.

It was Peter.

"Pete!" Sirius grabbed Peter and quickly rolled him over onto his back. Worry and panic filled him. Was Peter dead - or nearly dead - too? How could Remus and Peter _both_ be this badly injured? In the instant Sirius rolled Peter over, he was very smally relieved to see no visible injuries like Remus had had.

Peter's eyes fluttered open and he seemed to have trouble focussing. He gasped again. "S-stop sp-pinning - " he moaned and looked quite terrified.

"Pete, I'm not - "

"Sirius!" Peter coughed. "Where - where - "

The Willow gave a great shudder and began creaking back and forth. It was done being frozen, as Peter was no longer laying across the knot. Sirius punched the know as hard as he could and the tree began completely immobile once again. "I'm getting you away from the Willow! Hold on!"

Sirius heaved Peter up and let all of Peter's weight rest on him. He half-ran, half-dragged Peter to safety and was going to keep running with him when Peter gave a shout. Sirius quickly let Peter lay back on the ground.

"Where's James?" Peter sounded hoarse and frightened.

"He's with Remus inside. Pete, what - "

Peter suddenly started crying. "I'm sorry! I'm s-s-so s-sorry - "

"Wha - Pete - ?"

Peter leaned to the side and threw up. Sirius quickly stood up and held Peter again so he could go to the hospital wing quickly.

"My... fault..." Peter gasped loudly and began shaking. He abruptly went limp and Sirius nearly feel over because of the added unexpected weight of Peter not using his own feet in any way.

Suddenly Sirius felt extremely vulnerable, like some creature was going to jump out of the shadow's and _'Avada Kedrava'_ him. He had no wand and maybe what-ever-it-was where-ever-it-was knew that. His heart was beating out of his chest and he felt thoroughly paranoid. He hauled Peter onto his back with great effort like an overly heavy sack of potatoes and began to run as best as he could managed under Peter's weight.

His imagination was shooting into overdrive as the moon drifted behind another cloud. Two of his best friends were seriously injured. He unnecessarily reminded himself he had no wand. He was only going to feel safe when he was in the hospital wing. He was struggling under Peter's weight and was now narrowing his thoughts to just reaching the school _now_, before anything got him.

"You should eat less, Pete." Sirius said aloud, trying to make himself feel better, but it only made him feel worse. If the thing that had gotten to Remus and Peter was now waiting for him, and couldn't see him because the moon was temporarily blotted out, he had just given himself away. Adrenaline rushed though him and his tired legs suddenly found a burst of energy fuelled by his fear of the unknown.

He had to seriously force himself to just concentrate on getting to the hospital wing.

And fast.

* * *

A/n: Well? Whaddya think? Let me know and review me. Reviews me make happy, happy authors update faster. ;) Lol. Just no swearing please, and flames are pretty pointless so don't bother with them.


	8. Chapter 8 In the Hospital Wing

A/n: Major, huge apologies. I moved at the beginning of October and_ just_ got my internet up and running. This is the next chapter, and I kind of like it for no apparent reason. Its a good size chapter, I think, so I hope everyone likes it. Please note I also updated _Keeper's Heart_ and have two new one-shots to help make up for my long absence. Enjoy. **

* * *

Chapter 8**

"He's… alive… isn't he, Poppy?"

"Oh, alive! Gracious, yes. Of course he's alive." Madam Pomfrey sighed heavily. "He's _awfully_ banged up though, Minerva. Its going to be a long hard recovery for the poor dear.

They were quiet for a moment. Movement could be heard.

"And the Pettigrew boy?"

Another heavy sigh from the school nurse. "I don't know. He woke up once, gasping and rambling incoherently, but then he fainted again. I don't understand what's happened to him or how to fix it. I'm trying everything I know."

More quiet. Then Professor McGonagall said in a small voice, "Shall we tell the other two then?"

"I suppose we must."

The pair moved towards the door and Sirius moved so he wouldn't get hit when the door opened. Really, did they not realize he and James could hear everything they said? He glanced over at James a moment before the door opened. His friend was sitting on the floor like Sirius was, only James was leaning forward with his arms wrapped around his knees and his head resting on his arms. James sniffed and Sirius knew his friend was as deeply worried about Remus and Peter as he was.

The door leading to the hospital wing opened and Professor McGonagall leaned out. "You boys may come in now." She said gently, and the look in her eye suggested she knew the boys had already heard the conversation between herself and Madame Pomfrey.

Sirius jumped up. James looked up with red eyes and also stood quickly. As they had already heard the conversation, like McGonagall had guessed, no time was wasted peppering the school nurse with questions about their friends' conditions. They rushed straight to their friends' bedsides.

"Rem! Remus! Oh my gosh…" Sirius went to Remus first and in the light of the hospital wing, his friend look far worse off than he had in the near dark outside. Remus' face was bloody and swollen and much of his body was in bandages. A large lump rose in Sirius' throat at seeing his friend so battered. He softly clasped Remus' hand, like a brother would hold the hand of another brother, and it was more of a comfort to him than Remus. "Aw, Moony…"

James saw Sirius heading for Remus and so he instead moved to Peter's bedside. Peter had bruises and cuts all over. He looked unusually pale and sweaty and James desperately wished Peter would wake up and tell him what happened.

Professor McGonagall placed a hand on Madame Pomfrey's shoulder. "I think they already heard us, Poppy." She whispered. "Professor Dumbledore will be here soon, so let's give them a few minutes alone."

Madame Pomfrey looked as if she did not like the idea of leaving the two biggest troublemakers in school alone in her hospital wing, but given the circumstances, she would allow it just his once. She nodded solemnly and left the room with Professor McGonagall.

"James, is he awake?" Sirius asked.

James shook his head and reluctantly came around Peter's bed to be on the other side of Remus. The sight of Remus made James look even paler than he already was. "He's hurt real bad." He gulped and felt choked on emotion. He'd always thought of Remus as the strongest of the four of them. Not physically, perhaps, but mentally. Remus would outlast them all, despite his monthly full-moon transformations. To see Remus lying there, all bloody and broken, was almost more than James could bear.

"Wake up, Moony." Sirius said and swallowed. "Tell us what happened."

Sirius and James stared at Remus' face for another second or two before James gently grasped Remus' other hand and gave it a tiny squeeze. As if awakened by the tiny pressure on his hand, Remus shifted slightly and groaned.

"Moony?" said Sirius eagerly.

"Remus?" James leaned forward.

"Pad…foot?" Remus mumbled slowly through swollen lips and squinted blearily through even more swollen eyes at Sirius.

"Yes! And Prongs is here too."

Remus slowly managed to turn his head enough so he could see James. The corners of Remus' lips twitched enough to give the impression that he would smile if he could. "I knew… you guys would… come." He said weakly.

"Moony, what happened to you?" Sirius asked urgently.

"Where's Peter?" Remus' very hoarse voice asked.

"He's here. He's in the next bed." James answered quickly. While Remus was awake, they needed to find out what had happened above anything else.

"What happened? Ya gotta tell us, Rem." Sirius begged.

Remus coughed a little and winced as pain shot through his numerous injuries. He sharply inhaled until the pain had mostly subsided, then he relaxed. "I'm so tired… let's talk… later…" It was hard to tell because they were so swollen, but it became apparent that Remus was letting his eyelids close.

"Wait, Remus! What happened to you? Tell us!" Sirius shook Remus' hand a little.

Remus exhaled and attempted to lick his lips. "It… he…" Remus swallowed and tried again. "That thing…" he stopped and lay quite still for a few seconds and Sirius and James were worried he had dozed off. But then in a slow, raspy voice, Remus added, "Its coming… for you."

"Who? Which one of us, Remus?" Sirius waited with baited breath. When Remus didn't answer, Sirius lightly shook Remus' hand again. "Stay with me, here. Coming for who?"

Remus moved a little and sighed as he said the name, drifting to sleep. "James…"

James paled even more instantly. He looked as white as paper as he sat up a little straighter.

Sirius looked at James then at Remus. "What's coming for him?" he asked, but Remus' rhythmic breathing told them he was already asleep.

Sirius' shoulders sagged. He didn't know what to think. How could something try to kill Remus with the Whomping Willow and now be coming after James? Who or what was it? And most importantly, why?

James grabbed at his hair. "Sirius…"

Before he could say anything more, however, Peter suddenly gasped loudly behind them. Immediately the healthy pair whipped around, Sirius rushing to be on the opposite side of Peter's bed that James was on. Peter's eyes were wider than saucers.

"Pete! You're awa – "

"James!" Peter reached out and grabbed James' shirt with on hand. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! I just – "

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked, getting Peter's attention.

Peter's face was streaming with tears. "It _made_ me tell! I'm not brave like you – "

"Who made you tell, Pete?" Sirius demanded, but Peter kept his eyes on James and no longer acknowledged Sirius' presence.

"Its all my… fault." Peter hiccoughed pitifully. "I hurt so much… I don't know what it did to me!" Peter began shaking uncontrollably and released James' shirt. "Hide, James! Hide!" he shouted the last part suddenly, causing both Sirius and James to jump.

What was going on?

"Madame Pomfrey…!" Sirius stood and called.

Peter latched onto James' wrist and was now shaking violently. "He – tried – to – k-kill me – " he gasped. " – k-kill – you – t-t-too – "

"Madame Pomfrey!" Sirius shouted louder and more panickedly.

"Peter! What's happening to you?" James tried to take a step back but Peter's grip on James' wrist was white-knuckled.

"Goodness, I heard you the first time, Mr. Black – Oh gracious!" Madame Pomfrey bustled in at top speed and Sirius moved out of the way at once. "What's going on here?"

"I don't know! He just – " Sirius was ct off as Peter began yelling through partially clenched teeth.

"S-s-so – s-s-sorry – d-don't – hat-te – m-me – " Peter's eyes rolled back into his head and James yelped.

"He's breaking my wrist!" James tried desperately to break away from Peter as Peter continued convulsing. Normally Peter was unusually weak, but at that moment, the strength in Peter's grip was increasing and truly felt that James' bones were about to start snapping if the hand was not removed in the next second.

"He's having some sort of seizure." Madame Pomfrey said, then hollered to McGonagall who was standing further back away from the shaking Peter, "Minerva! The green bottle on the counter!"

Professor snatched the desired bottle off the counter and handed it to Sirius who was standing closest, who shoved it hurriedly to the nurse. She twisted off the cap faster than anyone could blink. Then she had her left had forcing Peter's mouth open enough so her right hand could jam the end of the bottle into his mouth.

Less than five seconds later, Peter's body stopped shaking and completely relaxed and James pulled his hand away. There was a clear purple and white area where Peter's hand had been squeezing, and deep nail marks that were bleeding. James' eyes filled with tears, though Sirius knew it was much more because of what had just happened than because of the pain in his wrist.

"What just happened?" Sirius asked so quietly he hardly heard himself.

"I'm not entirely sure." Madame Pomfrey shook her head grimly and replaced the cap on the green bottle in her hand. "I don't know how this boy is injured. This tonic is designed to stop seizures as they're happening, and heal internally."

"Heal internally? Do think there's a possibility all of his injuries are internal?" Professor McGonagall questioned.

Madame Pomfrey sighed wearily. "Best guess I've got so far. I really don't know."

"Do you have any idea why he went into convulsions like that?" McGonagall asked, lightly placing a hand on her hip.

"I tell you, I don't know." The nurse repeated, but not snappishly. "He'll stay asleep for at least twenty-four hours, now." She turned her attention to the two shell-shocked looking boys standing nearby at the foot of Peter's bed. "It has been an awfully rough night. You boys ought to head back to your dormitory."

James dropped his head to examine his wrist and said nothing in response.

Professor McGonagall smiled smally. "Would you like me to go with you?"

Sirius swallowed hard and shook his head. "No thank, Professor."

"Alright. Go on then. Professor Dumbledore will sort you out later." She walked over to them, gently placed a hand on each of their shoulders, and gave them a tiny push in the direction of the door. "You can come back tomorrow. Everything always looks better in the daylight anyways."

Sirius numbly began to plod forward and James slowly followed. The pair said nothing to each other the entire walk out of the hospital wing, through the darkened hallways, up to Gryffindor Tower, past the empty Common Room, and into the boy's dormitories. Sirius and James crawled into their respective beds, put out their lights, shut their bed hangings, and were quiet for some time before either of them finally spoke. All the others were long asleep.

"Padfoot?" James said shakily into the dark.

"Yes, Prongs?"

A long pause. "Something's coming to… _kill_ me?"

Another long pause. "I guess so."

A third pause, longer than the first two. "Padfoot?"

"Yes?"

Another few seconds of quiet. Then, "What am I going to do?"

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A/n: How was it? Let me know and review me. New chapters will be coming the moment I have time (I also have a job that is just a shave off of being full-time). Also, _please_ check my bio often to see what's going on with me and my fics. 


	9. Chapter 9 Switched

**A/n:** Allo. I'm a roll for updates. My muses have been exceedingly kind in the past few days, so I'm getting lots down in notebooks. The next step is typing it up and submitting it. I'm hoping the next round of updates will be coming fairly fast. To my regulars: _Keeper's Heart_ chapter 11 just got put up yesterday and after this I'm working on a new chapter of Saradon's Revenge.

Anyways, in reference to this chapter: its a little bit of a shorter one, but just WAIT 'til the next one - action gallore. Lol. So, I hope you like this, b/c I had fun writing most of it.

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**Chapter 9 **

The next day and for the days to follow, Sirius and James visited Remus and Peter in the hospital wing regularly. Most of the teachers had been informed of the situation, so they allowed Sirius and James to miss a few classes to be with their injured friends. The general knowledge about Remus and Peter's conditions, however, was that they had been involved in a freak wand and spell accident and were now healing from it.

To lighten the mood amongst the students and to take their minds as far away as possible from the scary and unsettling things Peter had said the night Remus had been injured, James and Sirius "switched places". They wore the other's robes, carried and wrote in the other's books, styled their hair like the other, and made a point of saying their own name when addressing the other in as many sentences as possible.

"Ready for Transfiguration, Sirius?" Sirius said, gathering up James' books as his own.

"I am indeed, James." James said loudly. The other students in the Common Room sniggered and chuckled.

"Well, let's be off then, Sirius." Sirius gestured grandly to the portrait hole.

James beamed from ear to ear. "Let's, James."

The others giggled and hooted as Sirius and James exited through the portrait hole.

This prank brought endless rounds of laughter and amusement from other students, though it greatly aggravated most of the teachers. James and Sirius had tried it out on nearly every, most giving them detention when they refused to give up the prank. McGonagall had been quite tolerant so far, though the boys didn't think her patience for their prank would last much longer.

"Sirius Black?" Professor McGonagall called on him for an answer to the question she'd just posed, later during Transfiguration. Neither James or Sirius were paying attention enough to be able to answer the question, but they had been waiting for the opportunity to continue their charade.

"Yes?" James perked up, grinning widely.

The other students chortled and giggled behind their hands.

McGonagall sighed irritatedly. "Potter, this joke has gone on for five days straight. Don't you think its getting old? Don't you feel its about time you two gave it up?"

"No ma'am." Sirius answered with as straight a face as he could manage. Again the others students snorted and chuckled quietly.

"Black, you're supposed to be answering the Transfiguration question I just asked." She said sternly, staring at Sirius.

"Of course." James said, still grinning foolishly. "But what was the question?"

Most of the students laughed loud and outright this time.

McGonagall's lips pressed into a thin line. "Although your classmates seemed quite amused by this, _I_ am not. So, Mr. Potter," she looked sharply at James. "Since you seem to be the one who wants to, please answer the question." The look in her eyes was plain: behave as yourselves or detention.

Sirius glanced at James, who glanced back. Sirius suppressed a smile. The look in James' eyes was just as plain: let's go for a record amount of detentions in one week.

"Right away, Professor." Sirius answered instead of James, and more students burst out laughing. "The answer is…"

"That's enough!" McGonagall interrupted angrily. "Potter – "

"Yes?" said Sirius.

"BLACK – "

"Yes?" said James.

"Detention for both of you. Tonight, after supper you will dusting books in the library – "

The two boys began to groan.

" – the Muggle way – "

They groaned louder.

" – under the supervision of Madame Pince!"

Their groaning reached a peak.

"Oh, _have_ a sense of humor, Professor!" Sirius whined.

"Enough." McGonagall snapped and shot them a look that even they dare not cross. "Now, can _someone_ please answer the question?"

Someone near the back raised their hand and called out, "A black hippogriff."

McGonagall sighed a little, happy to be back in control of her class. "Correct. Now can someone please tell me…"

Sirius lightly elbowed James in the ribs. "What d'you think?"

James shrugged. "Better than what we got from Slughorn."

The two snickered and chuckled to themselves.

"And?" Sirius' grin spread across his face again.

James matched the grin with ease. "Oh YES. Definitely worth it."

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That evening, not long after supper had ended, Sirius and James announced to the people in the Common Room at the top of their voices that they were off to serve their detention in the library. The students who'd been in McGonagall's class that day hooted and clapped before excitedly telling those who hadn't been in that class what had happened.

"Have fun, James!" someone bellowed.

"Oh, I will!" Sirius shouted back. The Common Room roared with laughter.

The pair exited Gryffindor Tower as James said, "We've started something, haven't we?"

"I think we have. Everyone gets as much a kick out of it as we do." Sirius beamed. "And it doesn't get old, does it?"

James laughed. "It really doesn't. And it's so hard not to smile the _entire_ time. You're much better at keeping a straight face."

"To the Professor's faces, I suppose." He pointed to his face. "But the rest of the time I just can't stop smiling. It's so bloody funny."

The boys laughed again and continued to reenact various moments from the day as they made their way through the dimly lit halls of Hogwarts towards the library. Outside, the sky was dark, speckled with pinpricks of stars, the moon covered with clouds.

"The best, though - the most classic moment," Sirius said. "Was when I went to Muggle Studies for you and you went to Ancient Runes for me."

They doubled over in new fits of laughter at the memory.

Sirius puffed his chest out and made his voice sound shaky and high pitched, in a flawless imitation of the ancient Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Ogland. "_Mr. Black, what is going on?_ And then I said – you know, in this super innocent voice," Sirius went back to being himself and adopted a wide-eyed and uncharacteristically innocent look. "_Why, I _take_ this class, Professor!_"

James wiped his eyes and gasped for breath between new fits of laughter at Sirius' perfect Ogland imitations.

"So she goes," Sirius continued. "_But you've never been here before!"_ Sirius snorted. "And then – then I say, _But of course, I have been, Professor! _I'm_ James Potter!"_

The two had to stop walking a moment to catch their breath before Sirius could finish his story.

"T-then – the best part, I swear – is when she t-takes off her glasses," Sirius took a few breaths to hold in his laughter until he was finished. "She rubs them on her robe, p-put them back on, and goes… and goes, _Oh, I see. Be seated then, Potter."_

They fell about laughing, clutching their stomachs and wiping their eyes.

When James had some breath to spare, he said, "Its always so much funnier retelling it."

After that, Sirius went on to describe hilariously how the rest of the class had gone, James laughing hard right with him at all the right parts. But less than ten or so seconds after James had spoken, he suddenly felt a hand as frozen as ice grip his neck tightly. It was so unexpected and hard enough that James was unable to make a sound. He stopped walking the same instant the hand had seized him and saw Sirius moved ahead a step or two.

The hand squeezed and there was no air flow whatsoever in James' throat. He couldn't breath. He started to claw at the hand and pry the fingers off, except that there was nothing to claw at or pry. His owns hands could feel his own neck, exactly where there was supposed to be a hand squeezing the life out of him. He couldn't pry it off because somehow it wasn't there.

Sirius was barely three steps ahead when spots started to pop up in James' vision and he couldn't think about anything else other than _breathing! _James was lifted from the floor, and he began to wave his limbs wildly… he was going to pass out… he was going to die…

Suddenly the hand threw him extremely forcefully in through the nearest doorway leading into a classroom. James crashed painfully into numerous desks and chairs, finally coming to a sickening stop at the opposite wall. He landed on the floor, knocked out.

At the abrupt thunderous noise behind him, Sirius whipped around, heart pounding. "James?" he shouted, his voice full of panic. He didn't see his friend anywhere. "James?"

Whatever it was Peter had warned against had found them. He just knew it. His blood ran colder than cold at the thought of finding James dead. "JAMES!" he yelled desperately.

The torches blew out all around and this made everything ten times scarier. Sirius squinted into the darkness and caught a glimpse of a shadow flicker into one of the classrooms.

Wand out, Sirius steeled himself for the worst, and followed.

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**A/n:** Well? What of it? Let me know what ya thought - even if you hated it. Just don't be too harsh, lol. Review me and I'll reply!

Two things: Check my bio page frequently to see what's been updated, what's going on with me, etc. Lastly, I'm thinking of writing a one-shot that would further describe what happened in other classes that Sirius and James took while they were switched. Let me know if anyone's interested.


	10. Chapter 10 I Have You Now

**A/n: **Yay for me! Two new chapters of the same story within 25 days - what a record for me, lol. I actually updated everything this past month and I am so excited about that. My muses have been so kind, lol. Anyways, chap 12 of _Keeper's_ _Heart _just got put up yesterday. I won't gove you allll the updates 'cuz there's many. Just check the top of my profile page for all the lowdown. Lastly, aboutt his chapter: Oh, action... action... action. Lol. Enjoy and review me.

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**Chapter 10**

James slowly opened his eyes and tried to blink away the stars dancing in his vision. The pounding pain in his head, however, didn't go away as easily as the stars. He didn't know it, but he'd barley been out for a few seconds, though it had somehow felt like longer. Luckily – if one could call it luck – his body had taken much more of the abuse when he was thrown into the room full of desks.

His throat burned like he had the flu and James still felt light-headed like the air was thin or he wasn't getting enough to breathe. He moved his hand to his throat and it felt hot on the outside even. He groped for his wand and gave a little sigh of relief when he was able to produce it from the folds of his robes. It hadn't been knocked out of him.

He looked to the door and glimpsed something rush in and move to the far corner. If his eyes were seeing right, the dark form in the corner was holding a wand, which was only slightly visible in the darkness. James' eyes flicked back to the door where he could barely make-out Sirius just about to enter the room.

"Expelliarmus!" James shouted hoarsely. It turned out to not be a very loud shout, but it was enough.

The shadow's wand and Sirius' both flew to James' hands. Quicker than he could blink, he threw Sirius' back at him.

"Wretch!" the shadow hissed menacingly and charged in a blaze of smoke to where James lay.

His having adjusted to the darkness, the tiniest light from the stars outside was enough to let him see. Sirius called out a curse, which the shadowy figured dodged by twisting in an instant and appearing for a split second to made only of smoke. It rematerialized just as fast as it had made itself smoke.

Scared but undeterred, Sirius quickly fired off several curses at once, some verbal and some non-verbal, forcing the creature to back away from James. At first opportunity, Sirius vaulted over several of the fallen desks to put himself between the thing and James. As the creature stood back and began to slowly rematerialize from being smoke this time, Sirius carefully helped James to stand, keeping both his eyes and his wand steadily trained on the creature.

It looked mostly like a human, though taller than one would expect. It was able to twist into a cloud of smoke and become solid again at will, which suggested it couldn't be human. At that moment, it let out loud and evil laughter, making the two boys shiver as the coldness of the laughter resonated through the classroom.

"You foolssss…" it hissed, its voice igniting deep, icy fear in the pit of Sirius' stomach and making him feel outwardly even colder than before. "You cannot deffffeat me…!"

Sirius, supporting James, inched towards the door. Their backs were to the open door when the creature gave another bone-freezing peal of laughter.

"You cannot esssscape either." It hissed threateningly.

"Do you want to bet on that?" Sirius yelled defiantly. Despite the fear that was making his insides rattle, Sirius refused to show a trace of it.

The thing snarled. It put its hands up in the air as if to surrender, revealing skin whiter than was even remotely natural. In each palm of its hands, neon green electricity began to swirl bigger and bigger until it was about the size of a Bludger. It only took a second or two for the two balls to form. The creature leaned back an instant later, and then forward, throwing its arms out as if giving something a mighty push.

Sirius had time only to open his mouth to holler a shield charm before the balls hit him and James, sending them out the door and into the wall on the other side of the hallway. They slammed into the wall hard, dropped to the ground and a suit of armor beside them swayed and came down to meet the ground with a massive crash. This was followed by a small marble statue that had been knocked severely off balance when the boys crashed beside it. It finally fell also, breaking into chunks across the floor.

Sirius gasped in pain. _I'm broken – _he thought. ­_Everything's broken – I'm going to die of pain – _

Peeves the poltergeist shot out of a nearby classroom first of the humongous triple crashes. He yelped when the armor and statue fell to the floor, then snickered and chortled.

"It wasn't me!" he bellowed. "For honest this time!" He started cackling madly, seeing Sirius and James struggle to sit up quickly. "Ooo, Potty and Black are in – "

Peeves went instantly still when the creature emerged from the classroom opposite Sirius and James.

"GET HELP!" Sirius screamed and grabbed his wand. Peeves shot away faster than anything and Sirius desperately hoped he actually was going for help.

The creature sneered and Sirius could see teeth made of silver and sharper than the sharpest blade gleaming from beneath the creature's sinister hood. "I have come here to kill you and _kill_ you I shall."

Clutching his stomach, Sirius sneered right back, ignoring the throbbing of his lips. "You lisp is gone. How'd you do that?"

The monster growled fiercely and formed just one green ball of electricity this time, though it was twice as big as the small ones he'd thrown before.

"No!" Sirius shouted as he threw himself across the floor in front of James. It was the same instant the thing tossed its deadly ball, which hit inches above and beside the two boys – precisely where Sirius had been a split second before. Pieces of wall rained down on them and the thing rumbled dangerously.

Sirius snatched up his wand from amongst the debris, thanking his lucky stars it had landed within reach. He thrust it at James.

"Make a shield and hold it as long as you can." He whispered hasty instructions. "That'll buy us some time. I'll take the minute can't anymore."

The creature conjured another brilliant green ball as Sirius spoke to James. It didn't hesitate at all and tossed the shimmering ball at the two boys.

James began murmuring the charm and spell to conjure a shield. Sirius shut his eyes tight and put all his trust in James. Simultaneously, the shield appeared the green ball hit.

James shuddered against the force of the ball, his teeth chattering loudly, but his shield held strong. James kept his concentration on keeping the shield up and strongly covering both of them.

Sirius let out his breath and watched as the green ball was deflected right back at the thing.

Most surprisingly, the thing didn't move fast enough, completely caught off guard because of the sudden shield, and its own spell collided with it. Green bolts of electricity snapped and sizzled all over it for a second, before it snarled furiously.

"Who are you?" Sirius called out, the moment the electric green bolts ceased.

"I am Vadamir, wretch, and you _dare_ not make me cross." It said, its voice quivering with rage. "I will make you pay for that."

Blood from the many injuries sustained thus far in the fight mixed with the sweat forming in droplets on James' forehead. His arms were shaking as he held tightly onto Sirius' wand tightly with both hands. His teeth were grit as he continued to pour all his energy into keeping the shield up.

Vadamir moved his hands around in a complicated circle at lightning speed. In the center of the circle, was suddenly a pinprick of red light. It grew quickly, revealing itself to be a huge red ball of crackling electricity, surpassing the size of a Quaffle by a few inches.

Sirius gulped. As alarming and dangerous as the green balls had been, Sirius has the sickening feeling the red one would be the end of him and James. It seemed to just scream death as it sparkled and sizzled terrifyingly.

Vadamir hurled the snapping crimson ball and Sirius grabbed James' hands and the wand he was clutching with both his hands. They braced themselves just in time. The red ball hit with severe force, jolting and rattling the boys hard. The shield flickered and died as soon as the ball reflected off in a random direction.

James let go and fell back, exhausted.

Sirius fired off several curses without giving Vadamir a second to realize what had happened. He swore loudly when Vadamir pulled the trick of becoming smoke again to let the curses flash through him. Vadamir became solid again and laughed cruelly.

"I have you now." Vadamir rumbled and advanced a step as Sirius was filled to the brim with more icy fear.

"There they are, Professorheads! I tells the truth for once!" Peeves hollered, rushing full speed around the corner, followed by four or five Professors, Dumbledore and McGonagall in the lead.

"Potter! Black!" McGonagall called, sounding panicked.

Vadamir whipped his head sideways and let out a nasty hiss of fury. Without wasting another second, he stuck his hands out in front of him, palms up and conjured another deadly spell. Black smoke, thicker than anything Sirius had ever seen, funnlled like tornadoes out from each of Vadamir's sleeves. It engulfed Sirius and James completely, muffling the Professors shouts.

"Lumos!" Sirius tried to light his wand. The tip ignited, but that was it. Not even the tiniest shaft of light broke through the smoke.

He began coughing and wheezing and then panic filled him as he realized the smoke must be poison. His chest felt suddenly extremely heavy. His eyes stung, his chest burned, and then suddenly his hands were aching sharply. His body left the floor…

He groped for James but couldn't find him… he was too light-headed to think…

He coughed and gasped for air. He fought hard against the feeling that a huge snake was constricting around his body… his arms were heavier and heavier… he felt weaker and weaker… his head was spinning dizzily…

"J-james… no… _no…_"

A deep, frozen voice thundered through the darkness, _"I truly have you now… there is no escape…_"

Sirius gasped again…

Everything went silent and pitch-black.

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**A/n:** Yes, another cliffie. All seems lost... what will happen! You have to wait untilt he next chapter to find out:P Well, besides that, please review me and make me very, very happy.


	11. Chapter 11 Everything is Explained

**A/n:** Last update was forever ago, I know. I'm sorry guys! I'm not going to go through all my excuses b/c that would take up too much time, lol. Anyways, this is most definitely the second last chapter. I have the last chapter written, it's just a matter of updating my other stories quickly and getting the last chapter into my computer. I'm aiming for the end of the month (April), but I'm also starting a College writing course on Tuesday, so I don't know how much homework I'll be given and such.

Anyways, HUGE thank you's to all my reviewers. You guys are the best. Lastly, this chapter is as the title says, "In Which Everything is Explained". Enjoy.**

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Chapter 11**

Sirius was aware of a brilliant light, though his eyes were shut. There were a few growls and angry shouts that sounded nearby. He smelled harsh smoke and something light and sweet that somehow reminded him of icing sugar. He was laying on something hard.

He attempted to open his eyes but the light was so bright he immediately snapped them shut again. He moved a hand over them to shield them further as the brilliance of the light seemed to increase.

His chest felt heavy and somehow clogged like he'd been breathing dirt. The smell of harsh smoke was overpowering the light sugary smell. He began coughing and gagging as the awful odor filtered through his airway and the feeling of dirt in his mouth was suddenly terribly acute.

He heard more shouts and felt a strong rush of hot wind blow past him. Someone laughed cruelly. A sizzling noise started getting louder and was fast accompanied by horrible screams of pain. Sirius' body felt so heavy he could no longer move.

He was coughing violently now as the painful screams from somewhere continued, and he tried to rid himself of the feeling of dirt inside his throat. The screams reached a climax and there was a massive explosion nearby. Heat blasted past Sirius and he curled up into a tight ball, thinking the heat to be fire.

The sick smoke slowly began to disappear and was replaced by that sweet icing sugar smell. There was a soft and gentle voice near Sirius' ear that whispered some incomprehensible words. Immediately, the taste of honey and strawberries slid down Sirius' throat, stopping his coughing. The dirt disappeared like the smoke had, and his chest felt normal. He could breathe again.

He exhaled in relief and heard the soothing voice say quietly,

"_He's gone, my friend. Sleep. You are safe._"

Sirius exhaled slowly again and remembered nothing more.

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Sirius' eyes fluttered open and were met with near darkness. There was a sliver of blue light on a faraway horizon that suggested dawn was not too long away. Cool wind blew past as Sirius struggled to sit up. He looked around and did not recognize where he was, or more importantly, recall how he had got there. 

He was in a wide open grassy field with distant mountains in the westand rolling foothills just before them. He could make out large round hay bales in other fields to the east and more fields full of flowers to the north and south. James was laying on his side about five or so feet away from Sirius.

"James!" Sirius crawled over as fast he could, fearing the worst as he looked at his friend's motionless form. He shook James' shoulder, saying his name several more times, getting more panicked by the moment. Completely freaking out, Sirius shook James even harder and yelled in James' ear.

"Alright Padfoot, _alright._" James groaned and batted Sirius' hand away. Sirius let his breath out and sat back.

"Mate, you just scared the - "

"Five more minutes." James mumbled.

Sirius stared at his friend's back. Five more minutes? He was about to punch his friend lightly to have him wake up and realize he was on the grassy ground and not in his dorm, when James sat bolt upright.

"Where am I? What's going on? Where's Sirius?" he said in one breath, not seeing his friend.

"Prongs." Sirius said quietly.

James whipped around, looking wild-eyed. He calmed slightly when his eyes landed on his friend's face. He exhaled. "I thought…" he started and stopped.

"I know." Sirius half-smiled.

"Where _are_ we?" James asked and stared around, taking in the scenery just as Sirius had done seconds earlier.

"I have no idea."

"What happened to us?" James questioned quietly, turning his eyes back to Sirius. The two of them both looked worse for the wear. James was heavily bruised on his arms and face, and had a bleeding spilt lip. Sirius had a deep cut beside his right eye that was slowly bleeding. There was numerous cuts and scrapes all over the two of them.

"Since that _thing _smoked us?" Sirius shook his head. "I don't really know."

They were quiet for a second or two when James half-smiled.

"I think I can safely say this has been the most bizarre week of my life." He said.

Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but before he got a word out, a thick column of pure white steam suddenly shot out of the ground about two feet from James' feet. The two boys backed away hurriedly, frightened for their lives as they thought of the creature that had tried to kill them at Hogwarts.

"Wand!" James shouted.

Sirius patted his person and was extremely dismayed to find he no longer had it with him. "Not here!"

The boys exchanged terrified glances.

The misty geyser stopped as abruptly as it had started. However, now in its place was what can only be described as a silvery white and gold being with shimmering blue eyes.

"I don't have much time." She said. Her voice sent mixed ripples of awe, joy and fear through the two open-mouthed boysbefore her.

"Who are you?" James asked quietly, hardly daring to hope she was there to help and not finish them off.

"I must tell you what is important before our time is up." The being said firmly, seeming to completely ignore James' question.

"But who - ?" Sirius tried.

"My name and origins are not important." The being stated then turned her brilliant eyes to James. "You are James Potter, are you not?"

"You know who _we_ are? And we don't know who _you_ are?" Sirius said frustratedly. "Bit one-sided, don't you think?"

The being ignored him. "Are you?"

James paled slightly and nodded numbly. "Y-yes I am."

"James," the being began. "I have come to you to explain everything that has happened. Though I repeat, we have very limited time." She paused briefly before continuing. "That dark creature that attacked you was a servant of the evil Lord Voldemort."

Sirius and James both shuddered. The name, unfortunately, was not new to them.

"Lord Voldemort sent Vadamir, the creature, to destroy you, James, and everyone in his path."

"But why?" Sirius blurted out before James even opened his mouth to ask the same question. "Why does he want James, specifically, dead?"

"It's because of your son, James." The being stated.

"My _what?_" James' eyes grew instantly wide at this revelation.

"About two and a half years from now, Voldemort will be at the height of his power. He murders dozens of wizards. You and your wife are murdered by the evil wizard himself when your son is barely a year old."

James started shaking. He felt cold and nauseated and helpless. Murdered. He was going to be murdered. In three years time. Murdered. _Murdered._

"No. That can't be. Not me." He said through chattering teeth. "You've got the wrong guy. I can't – not me – "

"I'm sorry James. It's the truth." The being said.

"B-but it's the future!" James persisted. "I can change it! It doesn't have to be that way!"

"Yes! Exactly!" Sirius joined in.

The being shook her head sadly. "But don't you see? You can't."

"Why the heck not?" Sirius demanded angrily.

"Time must run its course naturally." She paused slightly. "I know you don't understand now, but please. _Our_ time is short. I must explain further – "

Sirius was about to retort angrily when James beat him to it.

"But if I'm going to be murdered by him later anyways, what's the point of sending someone to kill me now?" he asked edgily.

"Because though you and your wife do not make it, your son does. Your son _survives_. Your son, James, is an _unborn threat_."

James and Sirius stared at the being for a moment, stunned.

"Wait…" Sirius was first to break the small silence and voice what they were both thinking. "How could a one-year-old boy survive a killing curse that two adults didn't?"

The being chuckled softly. "Extraordinary, isn't it? And no one knows why. For some reason, Voldemort's curse rebounded when he went after your son, nearly killing himself."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" James said, noting that the being didn't seem as pleased about this piece of news as she should have been.

"Yeah, I mean…" Sirius started but trailed off. "Wait, _nearly_?"

The being nodded solemnly. "Yes. Voldemort was reduced to a barely-there life-form. Your son, James, fought Voldemort off twice successfully as the dark lord worked to regain his power. And that was before your son's fourteenth birthday."

James and Sirius stared open-mouthed at the being again, hardly believing what they were hearing. A boy under fourteen?

"Though Voldemort regained power during your son's fourth year at Hogwarts, your son went on to escape him twice again." Said the being.

"Nice job, kid." Sirius couldn't help chuckling.

"I still don't understand one thing, though." James said as the first cracks of dawn were creeping over the horizon. "Why kill _me_ then? If this is all going to happen and we can't change it, wouldn't he be better off trying to kill my son?" It was odd, but somehow James felt a tiny pang of guilt as he spoke.

The being glanced over her shoulder anxiously at the dawn. "This must be the last question and the last answer. I am sorry, but my time is growing ever shorter. Because Voldemort has been unable to defeat your son, he wanted to stop your son from ever happening. He wanted to go right to the source.

"His opportunity came along. He gained a faithful servant, Vadamir, and the cosmic event of planets aligning for the first time in ten thousand years. With the planets aligned, there are certain spells that can be performed under such conditions. Voldemort was able to perform an extremely complicated, very old spell that is known only to have worked once since the beginning of time – before now, of course. I have no time to explain all the intricacies of the spell.

"The spell did what it was intended to do. Voldemort used the spell to send Vadamir back in time to stop you from ever having a son." She paused. "He failed. You live."

James sat very still, letting the gravity of what the being had just explained sink in. _How…? But what…? Why…?_

Dawn was creeping ever closer. The indigo darkness was being fast replaced by light blue and gold hues. The being looked hastily over her shoulder. "I know you must have more questions and I am truly sorry you will never be able to ask them."

"But – " Sirius tried to speak.

The being ignored him and plowed on, her voice etched with urgency. "Our time is nearly ended. I'm going to put you to sleep now and when you wake up this will all be but a vague dream."

"No!" James and Sirius protested in unison.

"You can't leave like this." James continued in dismay. "If I don't remember anything, how can I have any chance of changing my future?"

"I _am_ sorry." The being apologized sincerely again. The sun was literally seconds away from cresting the horizon. "This is goodbye."

"But you can't! Please!" Sirius begged. "How will we ever know what to do when this guy comes for us if we can't remember anything about it?"

The being shook her head sadly and held her hands out, palms up. Soft white smoke billowed gently out of her silky sleeves and began to surround James and Sirius.

"Wait! Who is my wife? Who am I to marry?" James called through the collecting smoke as the being began to fade among it.

There was amusement in her voice as she answered, "I think you already know the answer to that, James."

Sirius and James were met with the sensation of a soft feather bed underneath their bodies, replacing the grassy ground. Everything suddenly smelled light and sweet like icing sugar. The sensation of strawberries and honey slid soothingly down Sirius' throat. He couldn't help closing his eyes, feeling sleepy and content.

"Waiiit…" James slurred groggily. "My… ssson. Tell me… my ssson's name…"

Sirius was just at that stage when one is almost asleep and can't think properly. He sighed and heard the being's reply, slow and echoing like it came from a great distance.

"Harry."

Then all at once, the sun broke over the horizon, the being was gone, and Sirius and James were fast asleep, enveloped in pleasant white smoke.

* * *

**A/n:** Well? How 'bout it? Tell me what you think. I don't care what you have to say, I'd love to know if you read this! And I'm a glutton for reviews. So review me already. :D Lol. More soon! 


	12. Chapter 12 If Only It Could Be Different

**A/n: **Hey. Well, I said I was aiming for the end of April, and now its the second week of May. Lol. Anyways, here is the (drum roll) ... CONCLUSION! to _UnbornThreat_. Thank you to everyone who ever reviewed this story, evento stay it sucked, lol. No,no one said that. Even huger, more appreciative thanks, accompanied by hugs and chocolate (or w/e floatsyour boat, LOL) to anyone and everyone who has stuck with me from beginning to end. You guys are the best and I doubt I could name you all, because if I leave someone out I will never forgive myself, lol. Anyways, I also wanted to let you know of a couple things but Ican save those for the end of the chapter. :)

Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 12 **

Sirius slowly opened his eyes and was met with bright sun light pouring in the open window beside the bed he was in. He hastily closed his eyes against the glare, and wasn't sure where he was. He could hear someone quietly talking nearby.

He didn't exactly know why he wasn't in his dorm room or how he'd gotten to wherever he was now. He thought hard for a moment, trying to remember. He thought of a badly injured Remus, Peter flailing about in a hospital bed, a dark creature followed by pain, a white being, and the name "Harry".

Sirius scrunched his brow. Something wasn't right. That was part his dream. He immediately tried to recall all the details of his dream and grew silently frustrated when he could not. Seconds ago, it seemed, he'd been immersed vividly in it. But now he could only bring vague images to his mind, which were fast fading.

He sighed and slowly cracked open his eyes again, squinting against the sun's brightness. When he'd finally adjusted to the brilliance around him, he recognized the slightly yellow walls nearby to belong to the Hospital Wing.

_The _Hospital _Wing_? Sirius thought. _Why on earth I am in the Hospital Wing?_ He blinked a few more times to help clear his head from sleep.

"Ah, Mr. Black. Finally opening your eyes." The distinct voice of Madame Pomfrey said loudly. "'Bout time."

Sirius unsteadily sat up, feeling a bit dizzy, disoriented and achey like he'd been in the same position for an extended length of time. He took a deep breath and blinked several more times to try and rid himself of the disorientation and dizziness.

James was sitting up in the bed next to Sirius, propped up by pillows, both of his hands heavily bandaged. He had some large bruises on his arms and smaller ones on his face. He had a healing split lip and other cuts across his skin all ranging in length and deepness. He looked pretty roughed up and about halfway through the healing process.

"Morning sunshine." James greeted with a wide grin.

Sirius half-smiled. "Morning to you too, Buttercup."

James chuckled and Peter, two beds down, snorted loudly in his juice he was just taking a sip of. Sirius leaned forward to check out how is other two friends were doing, since they were apparently also in the Hospital Wing.

Peter looked mostly alright, though like he'd had the flu for significant amount of time. He look thinner and paler than usual, though bright and recovering. Sirius naturally assumed Peter must be indeed recovering from the flu.

Remus, situated on the bed between James and Peter, also looked rather worse for the wear. He gave Sirius a little wave. Remus looked even more bruised and cut than James, though one is arms was in a sling and he had quite the healing black eye.

"You don't look so good yourself." Remus said when he noticed Sirius' eye catch on the sling.

"What?" Sirius shrugged. He didn't feel any pain…

James smirked and handed his friend a mirror from his bedside table. Sirius took it and proceeded to study his reflection. Even though he had already seen what his friends looked like, he was still rather stunned by how the face looking back at him appeared nonetheless.

He had a deep, scabbed cut on the side of his face, starting at about the level of his eyebrow and ending at about his cheek bone. There was a large red and pink burn of some form on his chin, like the type one would get if you were to skid across a polished floor. There was a dark black and ring under his right eye, suggesting he too was healing from a particularly nasty black eye.

He lightly touched his eye dark eye and smiled wryly. "Well…"

The other laughed while Madame Pomfrey bustled about the otherwise empty Hospital Wing doing her duties.

Sirius waited another moment until Madame Pomfrey was nearly on the other side of the room before he took a deep breath to ask the question was beginning to burn a hole inside him. And one he felt rather embarrassed to ask.

"Prongs?" he started hesitantly.

"Yeah?" James said through mouthfuls of chocolate frog.

Sirius' face became a bit hot. He felt really silly asking, but…

"What… exactly happened… to us?"

James smiled kindly. "S'alright mate. I don't remember either."

"Neither do I." Remus added reassuringly.

"Me too!" Peter piped up.

For an instant, Sirius was relieved. _So I'm not the only one._ But in the next instant, when Peter had finished speaking, Sirius stared in shock from Peter to Remus to James. Not one _of us can remember?_

"Wait a minute. Not _one_ of us know what happened and why we're all banged up?"

"Only what we've been told." Remus offered with a shrug.

"Well, do enlighten me, then, dear Moony." Sirius crossed his arms over his chest expectantly.

"Alright then. Apparently, you knobs were trying out some random and highly advanced spell and blew a hole in the wall on the fourth floor. Broke a marble statue, sent a suit of armor crashing, charred a couple portraits, and seriously injured yourselves." Remus explained quite matter-of-factly.

"So then why are _you_ injured, if Prongs and I were the 'knobs' attempting this dreadful spell?" Sirius questioned.

"Ah. I know this part." James raised a finger and swallowed the last of the chocolate frog he'd been steadily munching on. "Dear Moony was trying to _stop_ us 'knobs' from trying such magic. He was close enough when it got out of hand that he suffered as we did."

"And good ol' Pete?" Sirius jabbed his thumb in Peter's direction.

"Trailing behind Remus far enough to only 'catch' the 'contaminated wind' that resulted from the magic catastrophe." James finished,

"I see." Sirius bit his lip thoughtfully. None of this seemed familiar and something felt wrong. He didn't understand what. "And _not one_ of us can remember anything about this incident?"

Peter shook his head immediately. Remus looked thoughtful for an instant before also shaking his head. James seemed to silently struggle for a moment, as though he could almost remember something, but he couldn't figure out what, or that something just wasn't right about this whole thing but he had no choice but to go along. But he finally sighed as he shook his head as well.

Sirius knew exactly how he felt.

"Neither can I." he mumbled.

* * *

The rest of the week, the boys spent their time in the Hospital Wing, healing and mending under the skilled hands of Madame Pomfrey. Many people visited them over the course of the week, some bringing them "Get Well" gifts and others reluctantly presenting the even more reluctant boys with missed homework and assignments. 

Although the boys, Sirius especially, felt uneasy about how true the story of the magic-experiment-gone-wrong was, everyone believed it and would swear it happened, including all the Professors. The boys had no choice but to ignore the nagging in the back of their heads and believe the story everyone was telling.

Professor Ogland sent her greatest sympathies and hoped they healed well and soon. She was looking forward to having James return to her class.

Professor Smelski, the Astronomy teacher, said they ought to have picked a less complicated spell to work on and he hoped they'd learned a lesson.

Professor Slughorn, the Potions teacher, told them they were arrogant and foolhardy but thanked them – out of earshot of the other teachers, of course – for destroying that statue on the fourth floor – accidentally or not – for he'd always thought it very ugly indeed.

Professor Flitwick raised a fuzzy eyebrow at Sirius and James, and heartily commended Remus on his efforts to keep his friends from harm.

Madame Hooch chided James heavily for putting himself in such a situation, as the Quidditch team had been and was still being forced to practice without him while he pulled his ridiculous stunt, and while he continued to heal. And was he really so selfish as to jeopardize Gryffindor's chances at the Cup this year?

Professor McGonagall also talked to James about her concerns for Gryffindor's possible ruined chances, but emphasized that she was very thankful that they were all alive and well. But really, she needed to know, _WHAT_ were they _thinking_?

And lastly, Professor Dumbledore congratulated on not blowing up the entire school and asked them to please proceed with more caution and smarts during other risky or, preferably non-risky, endeavors.

* * *

Professor Dumbledore hummed softly to himself as he made his way to his office, his robes wishing softly as he walked. He had just been to visit Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew in the hospital wing and though he was humming as he often did, he had an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. 

It was a pity, really. An awful, terrible shame. They could not know the truth. Things had to run their natural course. Time should never be tampered with. He understood that, though the being had repeated it to him in the gravest tone, the weight of the world evident in her voice and the urgency and secretive nature of her mission etched on her face.

Dumbledore smiled sadly. He could tell the boys were finally accepting what everyone believed. But he could also tell that in their hearts, they felt that it was somehow not the truth and they couldn't figure out why. Dumbledore rubbed his temples tiredly. It was hard to be the only one who now knew the truth.

When Dumbledore had witnessed the electric blue storm all those days ago, he'd guessed it'd been a Time Alter Cloud. He hadn't been able to figure out what or why the spell was occurring, especially since it was supposedly impossible. He'd brushed it off, though remained slightly uneasy and more observant that usual.

When Peter Pettigrew had gone missing and Remus Lupin turned up badly injured, Dumbledore still hadn't been able to piece it together. Not until Peeves had retrieved him and Professor McGonagall for a severe emergency on the fourth floor involving Black and Potter had his worry spiked and the pieces began to fall into place. Whatever had come with that unnerving cloud had found its target.

The being visited him in his office that night to explain everything, including that she knew from the future that he was the man to come to. Sirius and James were safe and everyone had their memories altered completely. The only one left with any memory – the memory of the true events – was Dumbledore, and he could choose what to do with that memory. Time was frozen as she explained everything to Dumbledore, and that Sirius and James were comfortably sleeping in the Hospital Wing.

She then went on to fully explain everything behind the motives of Voldemort in sending Vadamir to destroy James – Sirius, Remus and Peter had merely been casualties along the way. At that moment, Dumbledore had looked to the right across his desk, and Professor McGonagall was sitting quite still in her chair, looking quite frightened and not blinking. Time was indeed momentarily frozen.

When the being had been satisfied she had told Dumbledore everything, she'd disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Dumbledore temporarily blinded, blinking dumbly in her wake. McGonagall took a big breath and time was unfrozen.

"They're alright, then." She had said quite calmly. The previous fright was erased from her face. "Poppy's taking care of them."

Dumbledore had nodded thoughtfully, recalling the story he had been told had happened to the boys. "Fortunately."

* * *

Dumbledore reached his office and murmured the password. The gargoyle leapt aside revealing the spiral staircase which Dumbledore calmly ascended. He said a soft hello to Fawkes, who promptly burst into flames. Dumbledore retrieved an old Pensieve that he didn't use anymore from his cabinet and set it on his desktop. He sighed heavily as he sank into his chair. He quietly watched Fawkes rise from the ashes and sighed heavily, his thoughts still centered on the four boys and what he ahd learned from the being about their futures. 

In time, he supposed, the boys would completely forget the images from their "dream" and the sinister thing that had tried to murder them. In a way, their memories would in part, erase themselves.

Dumbledore placed the end of his wand to his temple and pulled a long silvery strand from his head. He let it slide into the otherwise empty Pensieve. He then pointed his wand at the Pensieve and murmured a spell. The Pensieve broke with a loud crack. He whispered another spell and the pieces disappeared off his desk. The silvery thread dissolved in thin air.

Dumbledore sighed heavily again. He, too, would forget completely in time. He had just destroyed the original memory.

Fawkes gave a tiny squawk.

Dumbledore said, "I just wish it could be different."

* * *

**THE END**

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**A/n:** (big sigh) Wow. I am so glad that's done. Don't get me wrong, this is actually probably one I really, really enjoyed writing, but it's a small weight off my fanfiction shoulders, lol, so it feels good. Please let me know what you thought, give me advice, tell me it wasn't your cup of tea - I don't care. Just leave me a review. By now you should know how much I adore them, lol. ;)

I also wanted to mention a few things here. _If Diggory Hadn't Died_ has momentarily been skipped over in the update rotation b/c my beta and I are having some rather sticky issues with a rather large portion of the last chapter (sticky as in we never have time to work on it, and when we do its just little by little, and its taking a very long time b/c we know what we're going for but we're not getting there). Anyways, so I'm just letting everyone know that.

Secondly, when I'm done my "big five" - which has now just been whittled down to my "big four", lol - I'm going to be editing all of my stories. And by that I mean attempting to fix glaring plot holes, fixing grammar, spelling, typos and the like. It may not be for a long while, but I do want to let everyone know that. You'll know if a chapter/story has been edited b/c I'm going to be putting another author's note or changing the current one in a chapter/story to let the reader know that it was edited.

Thirdly, I just updated _Keeper's Heart_ yesterday, edited and reposted _Stay_, and submitted a new one called _Nightmare_. Give 'em a read if you get a chance, and I'll love you forever, lol.

Anyways, enough of my extensive author note. Thanks again for reading me. You guys are the best.

Red Bess Rackham


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